HT Sound quality - best processors and/or combined with preamp?

Dbphd,  thanks great comment

Soix, not so much

Not sure I understand OP's question

Yeah, nobody does.  After reading many of the OP’s prior posts and resisting replying to them after the first couple, I’ve come to the conclusion he’s mentally unstable and not worth anyone’s time.  Sorry to say, but he’s just off his rocker.  Participate at your own peril. 

Not sure I understand OP's question, but for surround HDMI goes to my Bryston SP3 processor that sends balanced LR to a by-pass input of my Ayre KX-5 Twenty preamp and balanced surround directly to a pair of NAD stereo amps that drive side and rear KEF LS50s.  I think surround adds a sense of depth to certain concert and opera Blu-rays.  

Bryston admirers have argued that the SP3 can do both stereo and surround, so there's no need for a separate preamp.  IIRC the MSRP of the SP3 was about $10K.

Unfortunately the term Home Theater has come to mean multi-channel. This is unfortunate because there is nothing about watching movies that requires lots of channels. The goals of high end audio and cinema should be the same: high fidelity. If multiple channels were so crucial to fidelity they would be used equally in both formats. Clearly they are not. Audiophiles do not listen to stereo because some marketing campaign says they must. They do so because it sounds better. HT for some reason is mesmerized into believing that somehow HT requires multi-channel.

The tragedy of this is there is no such thing as high fidelity multi-channel. This is why audiophiles abandoned it. Watching moves on a big screen reduces a lot of people to the state they are unable to notice just how awful those HT surround systems sound.

So it is vexing indeed to see someone asking for the best sound quality in HT, knowing full well they will reject the one true answer: Stereo. The best processor is no processor. Ditch that crap, buy a preamp or integrated amp. Ditch all the surrounds, and the superfluous center. Once you get past not having the gimmick it quickly becomes apparent the sound quality is about a million times better.

The key to integrating in other words is not about the stereo, but about the screen.

SQ i fear is secondary for ht enthusiasts.  
 

goal is best sounding ht and stereo sound in same system. 

Both

Is this just an HT system or is 2-channel important too?  I’d u want good info here u need to provide better info.