Surround Sound & TFM-45?

If you want to stay with separates, you're looking at a lot of money for multichannel sound. I don't know what your budget is but if cost is a concern, I would just buy one of those home theater in a box systems and be done with it.

If you do want to get something nicer and are willing to spend some money, you need to look for a receiver with pre outs. I haven't looked at how the various receivers work because I have separates for my multichannel system. But you need to confirm that if you use one of the pre outs for your mains that the receiver doesn't automatically shut off the rest of the amp stages for your surrounds and center. To do this cheaply you'll need to utilize the built in amps in the receiver to drive the other discrete channels in the surround setup. You'll also need to invest in a center channel speaker that has the same sound characteristics as your main L+R speakers...timbre matching. If the center isn't matched with your mains, you WILL notice that there is something wrong/different when the sound sweeps from left to right and vice versa. This alone may require you to buy new speakers up front depending on whether there is a center available to match your specific mains. Also you NEED to invest in a LFE sub...the .1 part of 5.1. I didn't know how much of the feel I was missing until I added an LFE to my system. Some of the DVD soundtracks will not have the LFE effects mixed in for the other front main channels. I had set my front speakers to large which allows them to operate at full range because I had a sub tied to my main speakers. I felt I still wasn't getting the full effects. I then got another sub as my dedicated LFE and then everything was revealed as to what I was missing.

As you can see, there are no free lunches. With multichannel systems, think about buying a 2 channel system but expanding the cost into 4 additional channels. Again, I would recommend a all in one system like a home theater in a box as your solution. Many say that this would be more ideal since it is very difficult to have a dual purpose system that is both good with 5.1 and 2 channel stereo music. The set up requirements are a bit different between the two.

I use my tfm35 to power 2 -15'' subs..and I bought a 5.1 receiver for the DVD's...

I bought a Marantz SR 5300 when I first went to DD5.1. While I was estatic about it's movie ability's I was disappointed with the musical end. I recently incorperated a Carver HR-752 back into my front channels. I use the Marantz to send the front out's (on movies only) over to the tape monitor of the Carver. I then use the 752's pre-outs to send the signal to a Carver AV705x. This allows me to use the 752 as a preamp for just stereo. I plug most all my audio devices into the 752 while my Video devices are in the Marantz. The 705x is a 5 channel amp that is powering my two Klipsch RP-5's and the other two channels are powering the two Klipsch RP3's that I use for center channel. I then feed the rear channels back into the 752's amp section to power my rear advents. It's a little complex but it seems to work fine. I find it really clean. The music is outstanding with this setup. I also patch in a BBE processor for audio only. On the movie side I have found that if I play my RP-5's with built in 12 inch subs on large they sound much better. I have tried to feed the LFE and it never sounds as good. I noticed this with movies like Stargate and The 5th element. Maybe someone else has seen the same thing? Down the road sometime I'd like to get a Sunfire TG!!! preamp. I know one fellow who used to be fanatical (real cool) but now he's more run of the mill. He was into Carver now he likes Marantz (what he sells) He says he can't tell any difference between amps. He also says something else must be wrong in the way my system is set up. All I know is when something bass comes through on Movies the bassboard rattles and my butt feels the rumble. My brother uses the same configuration (no LFE) and sets all his speakers on Large. He then uses a divider, he devised and feeds all those signals into a 18 inch Velodyne Sub. How'd you like to have him for a neighbor in an apartment. Forgive the spelling, puncuaction, and grammer, just a factory working country boy.