Subhash and Santhosh
The Emotiva LMC 1 is available used for $250 here. Does it make sense to go for one of them and add the multi channel amp later? For the time being I already have an old Onkyo AV receiver. Doing it in 2 stages, and with a low cost entry into the world of seperates wont break the bank
Please let me know what you guys recommend.
George, the LMC-1 is a good pre-processor except that it does not do HD Audio formats like DTS MA HD and Dolby TruHD. Having recently upgraded to HD audio, I can say there is a noticeable difference between compressed audio and lossless audio even for movies. But if you are ok with compressed audio for movies, 250$ seems like a great deal. I am assuming that the "Emotiva HSM-1 external HDMI switcher" is also included in the 250$ tag.
Since the LMC-1 does not have HDMI inputs/outputs, you will need the HSM-1 switch. As per link below, it was bundled free with the LMC-1 at some point:
Emotiva Audio Product Archives :: LMC-1 Audio/Video Processor