What Pre/Pro do you recommend?

Have you considered using an Oppo 105 as processor and bass manager along with a high quality analog preamp? Analog preamps tend to be stable, whereas, as the previous post suggests, processors become outdated with technical developments. I'd put my money into an analog preamp and economize on the processor. I've had good experience buying used equipment, mostly from Audiogon listings. If you go the Oppo route, be sure to use the analog stereo output; you can pass that through a preamp for source control. I use a Parasound JC-2 BP preamp. I think you might find both a used JC-2 and 105 within your expense limit.

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The Parasound JC-2 gets an A rating in Stereophile's recommended components and dollar signs for exceptional value. If you bought a used one without bypass (JC-2 BP), Parasound can addd that capability for $500, IIRC, for unity gain through selected channels of the preamp. For surround and HT, the Oppo controls the volume.

The Oppo 105 does speaker and bass management, with an easy menu.

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I suspect the idea of going out and listening to a bunch of processors is over-rated, unless you can take each home in install it in your setup for a good insitu evaluation.

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The Cary Cinema 11a combined fine sound quality with some digital bugs, namely noisy HDMI link-ups and an automated setup that gave spurious results -- the manual recommended a tape measure and SPL meter. It permits setting crossovers for speakers individually and the bass management seems a bit superior to that of the Oppo 105. The owners' panel at AVS was very vociferous about its foibles, so I'd check there to see if there's Cary Cinema 12 owners' thread.

FWIW, I sold my original 11a and recently bought another.

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As a followup to the post of Zd542: The sound quality with Cary Cinema 11a is very fine. But when I moved the analog XLR output of a Sony XA5400ES from the Cary to the Parasound JC-2 BP, it was as though a veil had been lifted when playing DSD. Currently I'm running the Sony via HDMI to the Cary for surround DSD, but it doesn't sound quite as good as it did in stereo through the JC-2 BP.

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