New Amp(s) suggestion (Audio & AV possibly)

[NickK]

This is a possible AV and/or Stereo amp replacement.. possibly a rethink

First my kit:
Front Mains: Castle Harlechs
Front Centre: Castle Keep
Rears: Mission 734s
Stereo Amp: Musical Fidelity A220 (power, volume, input select - no remote)
AV Amp: Harmon Kardon AVI300.
CD Player: Myryad MC100 (coax digital)
DVD Player: Poineer DV-717 (optical out)
LD Player: Poineer LD-2950 (optical out)
Media stream: Pinnicale Showcentre 100 (optical out)
HD Recorder: TiVo
Free View box: Fox (optical out)

So - next the complicated wiring:
Front Mains (Harlechs) are biwired into the MF A220
CD Player is connected to the MF A220
Preout Front from the AVI 300 goes into the MF A220
AVI 300 then drives the Keep center and the Misson rears.

Now it's time to modernise and reduce the monolith that is my stack. As the AVI 300 doesn't have digital inputs and only has Dolby Pro-Logic it's a prime target to replace.
The Pioneer LD2950, although top of the range in 1995-6... is another prime target (and ebaying the discs perhaps).

CDs played on the MC100->MF amp->Harlechs are very good considering my musical taste is exceptionally varied. However this means manually powering on the MF amp.

Um - help! lol I want to keep the clarity, subtleness with the ability to drive the Harlechs like they should be driven (Prodogy has never sounded as good with the bass stopping on a sixpence and at the same time female vocals are handled with the subtleness that's needed for opera and soul). However I want to reduce the amount of stuff I have.

Help from AV and Stereo-philes alike would be appreciated.

Do I have to make the brave step to replace the Musical Fidelity and Myryad??

edit: correct version numbers.. long time since I've actually needed to remember the them!

 

[NickK]

Yup that's my concern - an equivilent sound quality amp is going to be expensive for both an integrated AV amp/processor or a processor/power amp combo.

Part of me says that long gone are the days when I seriously looked into buying hardware such as the TacT Millenium and Chord amps..

So having all the digital sources plug into unit that then drives the speakers is spot on.. however sound has always won over remote controls.

Your right, it's not much of a bind to switch the MF manually- so it looks like I'll be looking into AV amp just to replace the existing AV amp.

Perhaps I was thinking that AV amps have moved on and caught up with old but very good (imoho) 1998 stereo amps..