Surround receiver to drive ML setup

[Naren]

I have ML Vantage fronts, Cinema center and Depth subwoofer with B&W surrounds. I am currently driving this setup with Aragon 5 channel amp and Meridien pre-pro.
I want the latest home theater capabilities having upgraded my TV to a Sony OLED and am looking at the Onkyo TX RZ50 in a pre-amp mode to replace the Meridien which has been highly recommended in all the reviews and is affordable. My use is now completely shifted to video from pure audio a decade ago so will probably not miss the Meridien.
Secondly- can I just replace both amp and pre-amp with the surround receiver? Will it be able to handle my system?

 

[Russr]

Hi

IM(H)O, you will be hard-pressed to find a Receiver that comes close to the Aragon in terms of handling the MLs with authority/guts/balls, etc.
I was a Onkyo fan for a while, and had the PR-SC 885 (I think that was the model number) for a while. I chose it because it had balanced outputs, a great feature set, and cost 1/2 as much as the Anthem AVM50v I was drooling over.

About a year after I bought it, my other Onkyo receiver started acting up (HDMI Board). A year laetr, the HDMI board in my 2 year-old pre-pro went out, and according to the local Onkyo repair depot, it would cost me 75% of the replacement cost. So I went back to my Anthem AVM series of products. BTW, the last Onkyo receiver I had gave up the ghost late last year (yeup, HDMI switching board again - they seem to have an issue in that area). I moved my Anthem MRX 520 into my bedroom to handle that (Non-ML) sytem there.

NOTE: Anthem (www.anthemav.com) is owned by the same holding company as ML. You COULD look at their receivers (pretty frikkin's awesome), and they DO handle MLs, but you DO have a great amp in the Aragon.

 

[Robert D]

I would just use the RCA plugs and connect to thr Aragon amp. Use the Onkyo as a pre-amp, unless you end up doing Atmos or 7 channel and need more than the 5 channels.