Boat anchor the reciever and do yourself a major favor. You an get a Mapletree for under 1K and the AES AE-3 upgraded to the hilt both brand new. The AES will cost a bit than 1K I would chose either over a pedestrian reciver. That is unless you need to decode and processing. If this is your first outing with a preamp make it a good one. I can think of others much less than 1K the early Classe's the Nikko beta (very good) the Aragon 24AU, even the original but really versatile and serious Accuphase 200 I think. I saw one recently for about $800. Great sound there are so many choices why use a reciever? Just asking? I imagine its OK but not much more given the way the whole reviever sounds.
Who is using their receiver as a preamp only?
Just curious about experience. I'm considering the Antique Sound Lab Wave monoblocks to power the ZU Omens I'm about to order. I would eventually go with a Tube integrated (cayin 50 T, etc) and I would have to purchase a separate DAC for the Cable box and Apple TV2. I currently have a Pioneer Elite A/V receiver.