I totally agree with the guy who abandoned his $3800 pre/pro and decided to go with a traditional two channel system because in my case I almost did the same. I was fortunate enough to keep my h/t system but decided to invest on a total new and separate musical two channel system and to me it was absolutely worth it. Music reproduced by the best pre/pro is still far less musical reproduced by hi-end pre-amps, I found out. If you have the bucks and the desire for sheer music like me, go with two channel pre-amp, tube pre-amp I should say.
Preamps: Tubes/music or SS/HT Best of both ????
While I make my living in the sound business I'm new to the world of highend home gear. I listen to classical with some 70's and 80's pop. I want because of space and money reasons to have HT and Music systems combined. I have chosen and bought Aerial 8 speakers now I am looking to upgrade my Carver electronics. I like transparant speakers with deep soundstage. I am told that only tube preamps will give me the music I want (power amp can be tube or SS). There doesn't seem to be a tube preamp that does the home theatre descrambling. How have others of you solved this dilema. I recently saw a Proceed AVP (one of the best and most expensive SS/HT pre's on sale for $3800 )by a guy who said he had decided to do a 2 channel only system. The fact that he was willing to take a $1200 loss after just 6 months would suggest that the AVP isn't so good with music. How have others of you solved this dilema (hopefully without repatching different head units for music or HT ???