Should I sell my Integrated reference amp- Marantz PM-17 for a replacement AVR

Ah, before the integrated lovers flame me to pieces on what sounds like an extremely naive question above, here is some background:

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Till some time ago, my audio setup was based around a Marantz PM-17 Reference series Integrated amplifier coupled with a very capable pair of Phase Tech V12 speakers

The lady of the house however wanted a full AV room setup so I had to give in and we got a AV receiver (Marantz again), a Subwoofer (Polk DSW Pro 500) , a B&W center and some cheapie surrounds

I configured the system in a way that the front floorstanders are still wired to the reference grade Intgrated amp while the center, sub and surrounds are hooked to the AV receiver

The pre-outs of the AVR are hooked to the line-in on the amp
Thus this way, I can switch to pure stereo mode whenever I want
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Now that the history is covered, a few weeks ago, we decided to upgrade the AVR to a unit that also features a HD Video upscaler
We have auditioned a few and given the budgetary constraints, we realized that we can either:

A) Sell the existing AVR and upgrade to a mid-range HDMI upscaling AVR (the existing AVR is already listed for sale in the classifieds section, and i think should be sold in a few days)

B) Sell the existing AVR, sell the Integrated Amp (sob!) and get a single high grade AVR

Now I absolutely love that Amp, and I had spent a bomb to get the unit
But having said that, I get less & less time these days to listen to music alone and have been wondering if this Amp is overkill

What would you guys suggest?

Look at this simple solution.

keep your existing system and swap your DVD Player with a 1080p upscaling player, Connect it directly to the TV for upscaled picture and to the AVR for surround sound.

This way for a slight change (<20K), you can have your cake and eat it too.

Another option you can look for is that Video Upscalers are available as independent units. again you can get 1080P upscaled picture through your current system.

Cheers

Will these DVD players also upscale existing external input sources?
I was also hoping to upscale my Wii and Tata sky inputs

No they will not. DVD Players will only upscale what they are playing. If you want to upscale more than just a DVD output, you have to go in for an external scaler, or change your AVR.

What about your TV? If it has a upscaling engne, it should be able to do it by itself.

Cheers

The TV is a Bravia 32S and I guess it has its own internal upscaler, but am not very sure how good its internal upscaling capbilities are
I saw a similar TV hooked to Tatasky via a Harman Kardon AVR (with a Faroudja upscaler) and the end result was far better than what I get on mine

At the outset have you kept the upscaling on your TV on? Check your manual and confirm this. Secondly your TV supports 1366 X 768 pixels and can upscale only upto 720p. The other one you saw may have been upscaled up to 1080p. If what you was was a 720p, your TV can also do that. For a 32inch, 720P is more than enough and a 1080p will be an overkill. We have discussed this before many times, but on anything less than 42 inches, a 1080p will be an overkill.

Even of you buy an AVR with 1080p upscaling engine, it will be forced to tone it down to 720p to display on your TV.

If you want Full HD, you may have to change your TV as well as your AVR. It is decision time, my friend !!!!!! If it is good picture you are looking for the shortcoming lies elsewhere, not in your AVR. BTW, what is your Marantz AVR model number?

Another thing to remember is that Marantz is moving away from including any video engine in some of their new AVRs. They prefer to focus on the sound and leave the video processing to external engines such as DVD Players etc. Some of their model just support a HDMI pass-through, so you will have to be very careful in what your choose.

Cheers

very simple decision....NO!, go with option 1

"Sell the existing AVR and upgrade to a mid-range HDMI upscaling AVR"

your TV is an HD Ready 32 inch.......even otherwise at 32 inches you can't tell the difference between FUll HD and HD Ready.....so getting a fancy upscaling AVR with a Faroudja chip and a grand piano and a champagne chiller.....makes no sense whatsoever.....

That said even a decent mid-range AVR like the Onkyo 606 has a faroudja chip and does video upscaling, so no need to go for anything fancier than that. Unless of course there is a screen upgrade in the offing.....

the grand piano and champagne sounds good

ROFL @ champagne chiller!!!

My advice: do nothing.

Yes. Save up for an upgrade that makes a meaningful difference (receiver AND screen). Prices are falling all the time and that helps.

Till then, make do with workarounds already suggested.

If you love your amp as much as I love any of mine,you're going to regret selling it, and the sacrifice won't be worth it anyway.

im with persiflage on this. youre not going to really achieve anything much by changing. infact youre going to lose a lot more in music quality if you sell the integrated. and from your post it seems like you dont want to. but if youre going in for a change go for option a