need help with purchase

Since you can get a Parasound 1800 for $899 brand new now, i really don't see much competition for it around. I had one and thought that it sounded the best out of the similarly priced Tuner / Pre / Processor's that i had tried at home. Keep in mind that at that time it was selling for about $1200 or so. It did have a few "quirks" that i didn't like, so i moved on. None of them were major and some of them might have been addressable, but i never checked into it. Quite honestly, the measurably more expensive Marantz and Denon units did not sound as good to me but none of these did exactly what i was looking for either. Other than that, the Sony might be worth checking into. It is programmable via computer downlinks and seems to be ever evolving. Sean
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Sean has a good point. The Sony TA-E9000ES can be had for around $800.00 - $1000.00 price range used. I owned one for about 2 years. A great introduction to H/T totally upgradable(Current upgrade 2.01) with an unbelievable touch screen remote. A lot of bang for the buck.
Plan on spending another grand on a 5 channel amp(used of course). I used an adcom with excellent results.

Obviously, a lot of questions could be raised. The need for component video switching and a phono stage are biggies. Your choices (especially on the used market) open up considerably with the "right" answers. You may want to consider the Sherwood Newcastle 9080 (if you can live with two digital inputs) and the B&K Ref 20. Or wait for the new Outlaw 950, which promises to be a giant-killer.

Marantz SR7000(799.00) or SR8000(900.00) both are highly reguarded as great quality and major bang for the buck! Check out the great reviews the SR7000 has gotten over the past year.