Mark Levinson 390s (amazing sounding CD player/DAC/preamp), the other recomendation would be dCS Elgar plus which has a pre-out and sound fabulous too. on the cheaper end there is Stello D200 which for the price, a stunning bargain.
Borrow some from the shop that's trying to get you to spend money on the Cyrus preamp. In fact, take the preamp home with you as well so that you can compare the two setups in your own home.
I went from Cyrus AV Master 8.0 as pre to a prevs2 and noticed a small but significant difference.
Most people think that biamping gives benefit but not as much as running two power amps in mono. I currently biwire but I am considering changing my cables for better quality single cables when I add a second power amp.
Cyrus amps are brilliant, my other half has an 8vs2 hooked up with an XPower and the synergy as well as the soundstage is brilliant.
The system was initially the 8vs2 running the speakers (B&W CM7's); we demo'd these with a pre-power combo as well as the intergrated-power combo and the latter won outright!
JohnDuncan:Borrow some from the shop that's trying to get you to spend money on the Cyrus preamp. In fact, take the preamp home with you as well so that you can compare the two setups in your own home.
That would be difficult as shop is in UK and I am in Guernsey. Don't think shop would be keen to ship them over for me try on appro.
I already have speakers wired from the 8 power with Qed Revelation cables so I have ordered another pair so that I can bi-amp.
OK my cables should be with me shortly. So which amp should I use for the low frequencies and which for the mid/high?
Doing a search on google suggested that the Power amp be used for the low and the integrated for the mid/high. IS this correct or doesn't it make much difference?