First pre/pro and hopefully last


I am about to get my first pre/pro and hopefully it will last a long time. It will also serve as a 2 channel preamp. Looking at:
1. CLASSE SSP75, but I think it has been discontinued. why?
2. INTEGRA RESEARCH RDC-7
3. ARCAM AV8
Any opinions on these or others? Speakers will be Heron i's, and amps are yet to be decided, see thread under amps for that question, Bel Canto vs. Classe. Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.
saint2
Depending on when you want to make your purchase, BAT is coming out with a prepro 7.1 this June. It should be in the 6-7K range. Bel Canto is updating their prepro also but you will have to wait till late fall.

Gerry
Hi All
Update: I have an eVo6 with a Arcam cd23T with ring DAC on the way from fellow Agoner's. I don't need 7.1 for my 20'x12.5' room, so what other Krells are good. One Agoner has the SSP75, and likes it very much, and said 5.1 is all I need. These units do get out dated very quickly, so the other option I am thinking of, is going with a Supratek or VTL 5.5 as my 2 channel preamp with HT bypass. The Heron speakers I have match up best with tube gear, so a tube preamp maybe the best option. Still on the fence. Will keep you updated.

Tim
Tim:

I'm really interested to hear what route you end up taking. If I go the pre/pro with very strong 2-channel peformance route, it's most likely going to be either a Theta CasablancaIII or the Krell HTS 7.1. But the two channel pre with a HT pass through is also a possibility. The Rotel I have is really quite good at HT, but I'd like to take the 2-channel performance up a notch or two. On the two-channel side of things, I would probably go with something from Audio Research.

BTW, I recently picked up an FMJ CD23T (along with a matching FMJ A22 integrated and FMJ T21 tuner) for my office system (ProAc speakers). That is a very nice player. You are going to love it.

Take care, Tom.
I can't say enough about the high quality 2 channel pre-amp with HT pass thru and a seperate processor. The pre-amp doesn't even need a specific HT passthru, you just need to be able to reliably hit the same volume setting. So any pre-amp with a digital volume display, or a notch on the knob will do.

Just set the preamp to the passthrough mode or volume, and calibrate the processor. Voila. Get a good pre-amp though.

The upgrade a cheaper processor as the times require. You'll the latest digital processing, and stellar two channel performance.

I do this today with a Boulder 1012 and a Meridian 568.