cheap avr with pre outs

killbillr1

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Hi all, i have just purchased some Kef ls50’s for my front speakers to complement kef satellite rears, my current amp isn’t powerful enough to get the best out of them. can anyone recommend a budget avr amp with pre outs (main zone) as i want to plug a cambridge audio 6000a or rega brio into it
 
When you say cheap, what sort of price did you have in mind?

Do you have any particular brand or type of AVR that you like, what one do you have at the moment? They all have different sound signatures and features, anything else you require apart from pre-outs for the front left and right speakers?
 
i live in the uk, i currently have a denon avr x2300w ls50 fronts, rear and centre are kef 1005, with a rel t7i sub, budget for the avr is around the £600 mark as the integrated amp is around the same price, so £1200 in total. I didn’t want to go down just the avr route as from what i can gather from this forum is a dedicated 2ch amp is better for music
 
What are you trying to achieve with more power. Is to be just for film and TV with the occasional music listening or is music itself to be an important part of the set up? As you are used to the Denon amps then it's the X3XXX models you need to look at, either new or used, to be able to take advantage of pre-outs.

If you are going to connect an amp up for just power then a two or three channel power amp will do a very good job. If you wish to use the excellent LS50s for a separate music experience then you will need an amp that has HT by-pass but this could add considerably to your overall cost. That is certainly the best way to apply extra power for film and TV and a far better stereo music experience.
 
The entry level Denon AVR's with pre-outs for the main channels are the 3x00 models or better, current price of those are around £1k or so.

Much cheaper option would be to keep your current AVR to use for movies / tv and add a speaker switch so that you can use the stereo amps that you mention for music listening.


Having said that, this is option B, it has pre-outs for the front left and right speakers in the main zone:

 
If your budget is £1200 id consider getting an arcam avr550 which should be enough for the ls50's
 
much appreciated for all your comments, i looked at the marantz mentioned above but it looks like it’s pre outs zone 2 only, unless i’ve got this wrong?
 
The little Marantz does have pre-outs for the front mains.

The pre-out section on the back panel has six outputs, top two are zone 2 / middle 2 are front mains / bottom 2 are subs.
 
edit on original post, was looking at audio lab 6000a not cambridge, audio lab has HT bypass. just found a yamaha rx v6a has pre outs for £650, may take a closer look at that
 

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