Sony ES A/V receivers?

I'm looking for an ES A/V receiver, and I was looking at the 2ES and the 3ES. The problem I have is, they were both priced the same but I coudn't figure out what the real differences were besides the fact that one had 5.1 and 7.1 analogue inputs and one just had two 5.1 inputs. Also, I was wondering if anyone knew if any of the ES recevers had a speaker passthrough or bypass function that would allow me to use my main speakers as front L-R when listening through the receiver and to bypass the receiver and use my main systems pre and power amp for strictly stereo listening using the same two speakers? I hope that was an understable question.

 

I have a Sony DA30ES, which is probably an earlier generation ES A/V receiver.

If I understand your question, my receiver has a has front, rear, center and sub pre-outs...so I guess you can run the output from the preouts to a separate amp for anyone of the preouts. Right now, I have only the sub preout running to my Klipsch SW-15. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the response, but I was really more interested in the current line of ES receivers. As you know, the features seem to change on these things daily.