Keep these speakers for HT or not?

[KillerCharlie]

I have a set of KRK Rokit 8 monitors. I used them for my digital keyboard and they sounded great. Now that I have an acoustic piano and don't use the digital, my monitors need another use.

I'm in the process of upgrading my home theater setup (or rather creating my first setup). When looking at receivers I was surprised to find that only high end (>$800) receivers have pre-outs. I need pre-outs because the monitors are powered.

I don't want to spend a ton of money on my HT setup. Which of these options sounds best:

-Try to find a used receiver with pre-outs.

-Sell the monitors and buy a receiver and new speakers. Of course this is a money question. How much would it cost to get equivalent performance in a 2.1 or 5.1 system as my monitors?

 

[SlickSnake]

Get a refurb Harman Kardon from their eBay store or their website. You can get a model a few years old with pre outs for around 350-450 bucks for a high current HT receiver that retailed for around $800-900 with a 2 year warranty.

Or sell off the speakers, too, and also get some cheap Infinity or JBL towers refurbed or from FRY's new for 2/3s off retail on sale at least once a month.