My advice... remember it is all about the weakest link... and therefore you should always be thinking "Upgrade Path", as I know very VERY few people that were able to purchase their entire Systems outright on Day 1.

I personally would do Option #2 first, as I personally always go for Sound Quality over Sound Quantity

Option #1 if your priority is to Rock-Out (as you hinted to): $800 (+ $500) + $1300 = $2600

Get yourself an XPA-3, which will then allow your SR5005 to have enough power to run the Rears. Then if your current source player isn't up to par, it is time to step up to an Oppo BDP-103. If your current source player IS up to par (for it really needs to be), then next in line (Sorry to say...) is a step up to at least an SR6009 (the SR5005 just wasn't Marantz's best foot forward. An SR7008 is Marantz's AVRs starting to NOT sound like the weakest link, and the SR6009/7009 are really quite good for being an AVR, and at half the price of stepping up to an AV7702).

Option #2 will delay your power, but will up your Sound Quality game much quicker: $2000 (+ $500) + $800 = $3300

- more money in the END, however when you do get around to finally being able to add the XPA-3,
your overall System Sound Quality will be much better, and you WILL be able to reap the full benefit
of your newly added Emotiva XPA-3.

Marantz SR7009 (XT32, plus Sound Quality jump, plus adequate power), followed by an Oppo BDP-103 (if need be), followed by an Emotia XPA-3... leaving the SR7009 more than capable of powering your Rear channels now that it is alleviated from having to power the 3 Power-Hungry FRONT channels.

Of course this is only ONE man's opinion, and frankly not knowing enough about what you currently have, and what your Long-Term budget might be, these are only 2 Paths of many that you could take.

Good Luck!

Hi Jdaddabbo,
Thanks for chiming in with well thought out advice here.
I agree that one should think ahead and down the "upgrade path". NEARLY all of us music and movie lovers eventually do upgrade until we get a system we really love (or are well happy with). Why not think that way from the get-go?
Good ideas!!!!!
In any case, it is all fun and good listening,
God Bless,
Wayne

Hi all, good advice from everyone. There are many many ways to skin this cat.(hope no PETA folks are offended) I have another with some questions for further refinement.

I choose to use Emotiva XPA-2 G2 and XPA-1L G2 to power the front 3 (I actually am using 2 XPA-2s in bridge mode). I am using a receiver(Yamaha RX-A1040) to power the 4 rear channels and sub output(LFE) to the T1's
I am driving Triton 1's, an SCXL and 4 SS3's with this config.

Based on how extremely satisfied I am with this sound for 2 channel pure music as well as multi-channel AV and in keeping in mind expansion, I will suggest a little different approach with 2 options for gear. I will borrow Jdaddabbo's format for options.


Option 1: $900+$600+$1300=$2800

Drive front L/R with an XPA-2. Center with XPA-1L.
Use your current Marantz as an amp only to drive the rear channels.
Use an Oppo BDP-105 for your video and audio processing. The OPPO 105 has the Sabre32 DACs. The 103 does not. It is still a good device, but the 105 uses 2 ESS9018 Sabre32 DACS. 1 for 2 channel processing and the 2nd for up to 7.1 channel output Exceptional sound and video!

Option 2: $1800+$600+$1300=$3700

Same as 1 except use 2 XPA-2's in bridge mode. You can grow into this config as the XPA-2 are switchable between 2 channel and mono. Advantage is if you want to expand into 7 channel the XPA-s can be used in 2 channel mode, adding 2 channels of high quality power for other channels.

So now for the questions:

Does the Marantz have features you want that are not available on the BDP-105 or other brands of AV receivers?
Do you prefer to have as few components as possible?
What cabling are you using? Cables make a BIG difference on analog connections.