Help to upgrade my surround processor

You should considered Proceed AVP-S for now. Great with 2-channel music too, will beat out all other companies you mentioned.You can always upgrade to AVP2 later on if you like the sounds, and I'm pretty sure you will.

The AVM-20 is not going to be 9 years old most likely. It will also crush most other pre-amps sonically, especially an old Onkyo. Check out a B&K or Sunfire also. The budget solution is Outlaw.

Very good responses. The Classe is out of my price range. I like the proceed. Nguyen when you say upgrade to a avp2, do you mean buy an avp2 or can the avp s be upgraded? Looks like my best bets are the proceed, anthem or sunfire.

If you are looking at the Sunfire, you may wish to consider two derivative designs that many people speak very highly of namely the Emotiva (2 models) and the Sherbourn PT-7010a. The Sherbourn is definitely a refinement on the original Sunfire design and downstream variants and has very good sound as well as balanced XLR and single-ended output options. It does all the video transcoding you need and has an external HDMI switcher to help future-proof your investment. I owned one for about a year and a half and the build quality is extremely good as is the sound, DSP capabilities, etc....It has full 7.1 outputs along with two 'stereo side' outputs that can be allocated to a second zone or to 9.1 HT use if memory serves. There are two 7010a's posted on Audiogon in the $799 price range now.

Drj -

The big driver of DSP design is new audio formats. I know this is an obvious thing to say but laser hasn't changed for a very long time. And an older DVD unit is probably only doing the basic Dolby ProLogic format.

(The one thing you didn't mention is whether you are running two channel or surround...)

Which gets to what you can realistically achieve with your current audio video set-up which is now 3-4 generations back. (Obviously straight two channel is a different thing....)

A cost effective suggestion that may or may not satisfy your buyers lust, would be to look for an older top of the line Denon, Marantz or Nakamichi. There is not much of a market for these anymore but they still do what they do very well - and IMHO no one builds that kind of gear like the Japanese. You'll find them on ebay, Craigs List and sometimes here and on Videogon. Save your pfennings for a new rig.

You will gain a noticeable incremental improvement by going through and cleaning all of your interconnects with Caig, and upgrading your S cables with new ones from Blue Jean.

I highly recommend using a Monster PowerBar or APC H type AV power conditioner to plug the system into. This will visibly improve your picture, will probably improve the sound and can be used as the cornerstone of a new rig as it evolves.

In short, go for the low hanging fruit until you can make a significant move.