Home theatre and Musical Experience

Sean, have you listened to a Proceed in your system? I have the older PAV, like I mentioned previously, because I just moved to HT this year and was very nervous. Previous preamps were Audio Research and Coda, since music is my priority, I ventured apprehensively into HT. I've been very happy with the PAV. In fact I had one gentleman offer me $400 more than I paid for it. He told me he is big into high end and friends with many audio salesmen, and they all thought the PAV better sonically with 2 channel than the AVP. I just bought it 'cause it sounded better than any other <$1500 pre/pro I auditioned. I might be missing awesome DTS or whatever, but music is 80% of my listening, and I would rather have a great pre with a adequite pro than vice versa. I haven't been able to demo the AVP and PAV side by side, but I think the Proceed line is very good in 2 channel and just might be what you're looking for.

Steve, I recently took my first plunge into HT. I've been a audiophile for 20 years but was always nervous about making the move to HT, because music still remains 75-80% of my listening. I bought a Proceed PAV with Classe CA-200 and Classe CAV-75 amps used for less than $3k. I'm not wealthy but I like good sound. The Proceed PAV doesn't have DD or DTS, but I couldn't find a <$1500 pre/pro that did such a good job on music. The Dolby Pro Logic does a good enough job for my limited HT watching. I also went with a seperate stereo amp for music. The Classe CA-200 drives my mains and sounds better to me than any multi-channel amp I've heard on 2 channel music. When I play HT, I turn on the CAV-75 to drive the surrounds. To me I have the best of both worlds, I know the pre/pro could have better HT setup but with my budget limitations and my listening habits I chose a used pre/pro that's strength is music over HT. How much you value or listen to music and your budget will determine where you go, there are many different directions to go in. I hope this helps.