Best Cost No Object pre-pro is?


Opinions? One that acts a top notch pre amp in to channel, has a decent DAC for movies etc and very good video performance, even if its just transparent HDMI switching? The ones I have heard about are Krell, Mark Levinson, Halcro, and Goldmund. Among these Krell and ML do not have HDMI. Does this impact video quality with blu ray etc at all? Any comments on the above or any other?
henryhk
Thanks Keenyt. re Meridien the one thing that bothers me is that it redigitizes analogue signals...so if I want my 2 channel SACD player feeding into it, DSD to PCM conversion has to occur at some stage. Its not just the digital processing of the codecs re movies but also something that serves as very good two channel pre-amp that I am looking for. TACT I think is the same.
Henry,

Add a good two channel preamp with HT passthrough then, most new pre/pro's do convert to digital, and if 2 channel is the most important, this will give you the best sound, and add some flexibility as you can save on less expensive pre/pro's and keep current with them....

Just a thought...
Thanks Kenny. I was thinking about that and clearly its an option...just wanted to investigate if there is a pre-pro with a great analogue preamp in it so that I can avoid adding yet another box. The McIntosh I use is pretty good but as well all do, I was wondering of there was something appreciably better.