MC-1 or Ref 30

I owned a B&K Ref-30 for two months, then traded up to the Proceed AVP so that I could get a better pre-amp for 2ch listening. If you like your music, and you really want to let those speakers and the Bryston amps shine, a better pre-amp will let that happen. As for not getting upgrades from Madrigal, they are offering their upgrade early next year after they release the new Mark Levinson Processor. B&K was supposed to offer an upgrade this year as well, but as of yet nothing. The problem is, upgrades cost them money, and unless it can make them some money they are not going to offer one. If 7.1 channel surround is what you want, get the B&K. I has some nice options, a good set of inputs, component video switching. It does not do balanced connections, if that is important to you. As for the Lexicon, a top notch a/v preamp because it essentially does everything under the sun. It is a little lean on 2ch music capabilities so beware. By the way, if you're willing to shell out the cash on the Lexicon, another a/v preamp you may consider is the Bryston SP-1. I've heard that with Bryston amps this thing really shines, it has complete analog pass-thru for music, and it is backed by their same 20 year warranty. Good Luck.

Pick up the December issue of Sound and Vision and their's a review of the Lexicon MC1,B&K ref 30 and Meridian 561.
It should give you a good idea on what this particular pre/pros perform. I have a B&K ref 30 myself and pretty happy with it. Happy Hunting.

Thank you for all of you input folks. Lakerat2124, Arealavfan, Argent, and rmml, it's always good to hear everyone speak well of the unit I was leaning toward. I believe my mind is made up.

MC-1 digitizes all analog inputs--that should be all you need to know if you care about music.

B&K has had reliability problems in the past(their A/V receivers were notorious in this regard), but they may be better now as it's been about 3 years since I sold'em. Just something to be aware of--otherwise I hold B&K stuff in high regard.

That said I have to agree with Argent. If you can swing it the SP1 seems to be the obvious choice, especially considering your amps but also 2-channel performance.

There is one other option that is actually what I'd do. You can buy a relatively inexpensive Denon receiver to handle the surround processing duties only(still using your Brystons for amps) that'll do fine for movies and buy a high-quality 2-channel preamp with a home theater passthrough that will seamlessly integrate with the Denon. This way you get the best possible sound quality for critical stereo listening while maintaining upgrade flexibility(just flip out the Denon when surround formats change), and all this at a lower cost than a higher-end pre/pro--best of both worlds, except you've got two boxes instead of one. Excellent solid state stereo preamps with HT passthroughs can be had from Adcom(GFA-750), McCormack(RLD-1), Levinson, while tubes offer Sonic Frontiers, BAT, AR, Rogue, Conrad-Johnson, VAC(or VTL, not sure which). Anyway, just another option to consider. Best of luck.

Tim

I'd advise against the Denon receiver as a processor. I did this for a while w/ separate amps and a separate 2-channel pre-amp for music. When I got my B&K ref 30 I noticed a HUGE difference from the Denon on soundtracks (and the dolby pro-logic decoding in particular). Not just a slight difference -- quite noticable. If you read all the reviews of the Ref 30 every one of them remarks how great it is w/ soundtracks, and my experience has been consistent w/ those remarks.