Very rich indeed. And with the 8802, there's no power amplification, so you'll need one or multiple power amps. There's also the 7702, which is half the cost. Even the receiver route can still result in excellent sound quality. But as you said, your existing Integra will still sound amazing, and the best sounding upgrade will be speaker upgrades.

Wayne,

No offense taken at all regarding the B&W's! I'm am hoping and expect the performance jump to be pretty large between those and any of the Tritons. My point about liking there sound was 1) well, I have always liked the way they sound, especially for music but 2) they do not distract me where my current Center speaker really does. That's the main reason I'm focusing on the center first. It's the weak link in the chain at the moment.

An interesting note on whether I've heard the Triton 5's or not....no, I haven't! I know I know, crazy that I've keyed in on speakers that I haven't even heard. I am taking a pretty big leap of faith based on a few things. I liked Polk previously, then I moved to Definitive after that as my speakers of choice. This was basically while Sandy was there both times and I didn't even know who he was or that situation until researching GoldenEar more recently. So I feel like my ears like what he's trying to create. I also have installed Invisa 650s in my new living room and although they aren't fully broken in yet I already really like the sound. Since they have the same tweeter, I *think* I'm safe going with the Tritons. We'll see!

T Cobe,

Yeah, I'm in no major hurry to get a new receiver actually at this exact moment because of the format wars as you say. I'm going to see how that pans out for a bit especially before I consider anything like cutting new holes in my brand new drywall/ceiling!

Art,

Yeah, the Onkyos and Integras both had a phase where they ran really really hot; still do but at least the main two I have running my two main areas now are not as bad as their previous models in that. I'm not familiar with the NR3009 or what year it came out, but I had a Integra 7.9 that went POP and let out all the magic blue smoke about a week after I bought it. It ran really really really hot. I did get it replaced though and it actually still runs just fine although it doesn't do much heavy lifting anymore.

I have a closet in the back of the theater room where I'll be racking my equipment. I'm going to monitor it quite a bit at first, but I had the AC guy run a vent into the room, so I'm hoping that's going to do the trick.

Thanks again everybody for all the comments! I'll definitely post some picks soon.

Your closet with an AC vent should be fine, unless that same vent supplies additional heat in the winter. Check the placement of your power amps on the rack to make sure they have adequate ventilation to allow the air to circulate around them. I recommend never stacking devices which give off significant heat. If you must stack them, use furniture foot cups or some similar means to increase the space between units.

Art,

Wow, I am so kicking myself that I didn't even consider it. I don't know for sure if the vent will be supplying heat in the winter or not, but I certainly imagine that it is setup as such. I can close the vent off at the wall, but those grates are never terribly good. I'll figure something out.

On my racks I'm installing rack shelves for the receivers and leaving their feet on instead of putting them in with rack ears for just those airflow reasons. It doesn't look as nice as far as the install, but hey, their in closets and at least they won't burn up (hopefully)!