[70sMac]

Originally Posted by Dilettante

Bill,

If you want to get really good stereo (two channel) reproductions of your stereo music I suggest you get a very good stereo preamp that has HT (home theater) bypass input and connect either your AV pre pro (MX130) or any other pre pro's front LR pre-out channels to the HT bypass input on the stereo preamp for home theater or movies and control the volume from your AV pre pro when watching movies. And use the volume on the stereo preamp when listening to stereo music. And connect the stereo pre to your amp that powers your front LR speakers.

The HT bypass input on the stereo preamp will disable and bypass the volume control on that stereo preamp (unity gain). This HT bypass (HT passthrough) is a line level input meant to be connected from an AV pre pro's front LR pre-out channels or an AVR's front LR channels pre-out.

If you decide to sell your MX130 pre pro and get an AVR (AV receiver), run the front LR pre-out channels to the HT bypass input on the stereo pre. And again, for the same, use the volume control on the AVR when watching movies.

Or alternatively, you can get a stereo integrated amp that has HT bypass (HT passthrough) input and sell your MC300 power amp since it's an old amp. And the stereo integrated amp powers your main front LR speakers. And run your AV pre pro or AVR front LR pre-out to this HT bypass on the stereo integrated amp.

Or you can get a used Classe SSP 800 pre pro or Classe Sigma SSP pre pro. These Classe pre pros are great for both stereo music and surround sound movies. These Classes are optimized for stereo music or when used as a high end stereo preamp for listening to music. With either of the SSP 800 or the Sigma SSP you won't have to look for a separate high end stereo pre for your stereo duties (for listening to stereo music). They serve as your high end stereo preamps as well as multichannel / surround sound preamp processors. However, both the SSP 800 & the Sigma SSP do not support 4K video and Dolby Atmos/DTS-X surround sound formats. They do support 1080p video and DTS-HD Master Audio & Dolby True-HD.

FYI,
AVR (AV receiver) = AV pre pro (multichannel AV preamp surround processor) + multichannel power amps in a single chassis. It's like a multichannel / surround version of the stereo integrated amp with an addition of video board (HDMI).
AV pre pro = multichannel AV preamp surround processor (with video board/HDMI switchings) with no amplifier section and cannot drive passive speakers. The AV pre pro (HT processor) is to be connected to the multichannel amps or a combinations of monoblock amps or stereo amps and multichannel amps. Basically you can use all kinds of amps (monoblock, stereo, multichannel) to power all your speakers in home theater setup.
I've seen people using all monoblock amps to power all his speakers in their home theater setup but will be very costly indeed. Or some use 3 monoblock amps to power their front LCR speakers and use multichannel amp(s) to power their surrounds, or a pair of monoblocks for front LR speakers and use multichannel amp(s) to power the rest of the speakers depending on your speaker configurations (5.1 ; 7.1 ; 9.1 ; 11.1 or 5.1.4 ; 7.1.4 ; 9.1.4 in Atmos/DTS-X setups).

Dilettante..... There's a lot here to digest, but I like having that problem.

When you say that the both the Classe SSP 800 Pre-Pro the Classe Sigma SSP Pre-Pro do not support 4K video, are you saying that it won't pass a 4K video signal through to our OLED TV? I really don't mean to muddy the water, because all of this A/V/D information is complicated enough, but I've seen this mentioned several times now. You see, we're presently routing the video signal coming out of our Sony X800M2 directly to the TV via a high-speed HDMI cable. We have recently viewed a few 4K UHD movies and, apart from being a bit disappointed in the jump from blu ray to 4K UHD blu ray, it worked fine.

If you will, please give us the basics on 4K video "support" and why it's important when it comes to a good pre-pro.

Thanks again