You mentioned in your original post that high-end audio was your first priority. If this is true, then you won't get it with a home theater processor. Even the best processors, costing 2 and 3 times the units you are looking at, can't compete with a dedicated 2-channel preamp for high-end sound. If you're truely serious about 2-channel audio, then save some money on the processor and buy a decent preamp as well. Both can be integrated into the same system. There's all this talk about the sound of one processor versus another, but one comparison of any processor to a decent preamp will yield obvious results.
