I am trying to balance things out in the HT. Speakers are obviously important, so is the amplification, so is the pre/pro as are the sources and projector/screen. If I don't reach an equilibrium of performance across the board, some of the potential will be wasted. No sense of investing in serious gear if the speakers are not up to par, no sense of investing in great speakers if the gear is not up to par. On the one hand, paying $30k for a Krell Evo 707 may not be the wisest investment either since it is one of the components that will experience the threat of ever evolving technology out of all of them even if it is some what up-dateable, on the other, going with a budget pre/pro will rob the whole system of reaching it's peak performance. Hence my careful approach to this dilemma.
Everything else can serve a relatively long life in the theater, the speakers, the amps, cabling, maybe the source would have to change eventually. As it stands, the Krell Evo 707 doesn't even have any room correction software which already puts it at a possible disadvantage even if it is a stellar performer in both surround and 2 channel modes.
Thanks for the advice so far, keep them coming!