Preamps in general

No one mentioned Sunfire. How does it compare to those mentioned above, and to Meridian's 500 series pre/pros.

I had a Sunfire Theatre Grand II in my system for about a month, and was very impressed with the processor, and analogue pass through. It even has a pretty decent phono stage -- not quite the warmth of tubes, but quite as black night. I don't know this unit compares with the Lexicon, Bryston and others mentioned above, and would love to hear comments. I do know there is a significant difference between teh Sunfire I and II, and that the II new can be had most anytime on ebay and elsewhere for around $2400, and used for as much as $600 less. That seems a bargin for the money. The remote and set up were very user friendly.

I've not bought a Sunfire, or any other pre/processor yet since I've been considering Meridian, and have been for a number of months testing a mid level HT receiver (by Luxman, remember them? -- the Luxman's pre/process section is not the equal of the Sunfire, but it also does analogue pass through, and has 120 watts, I think, and others have said the little Luxman beats the sound of the Denon 4800, but I've not had the Denon in my sytems for a direct comparison).

Bookner,

I can't commnet on Sunfire as I have not heard any of it. I think Bob Carver is a dedicated audiophile and I respect him as a designer (however I did own a Carver amp, TFM35X, which wasn't musical at all, but I'm not sure Bob was affiliated with Carver at the time of production). I would like to hear Sunfire, as it has gotten good reviews, but I would also check out Anthem AVM20 and the Tag Pre/Pro. I wish to God I could sit down with all these pre/pros and do A/B testing. Anyone A/B demo-ed some of these things? I may scrap Lexicon in favor of Anthem or Tag. Just too many decisions to make:/

Bookner and Mdomnick ( or anyone else for that matter ), drop me a line if you're interested on comparing notes or if you have questions on the Sunfire TG II. I can't say i'm anywhere near being an expert on this unit, but i can relate my findings with it. Sean
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Mdomnick,

To answer your second question, yes you can use two preamps in a combined HT/Stereo system very easily. The easiest solution is to buy a stereo preamp that has a home theater passthrough feature, which allows you to only use the stereo components for 2-channel listening but also lets you seamlessly switch to a pre/pro(your Lexicon) for surround music/movies by pushing one button. You never have to worry about volume matching and in stereo listening the Lexicon is totally out of the loop. Personally I think this is the least costly and most sonically pure way to go. Here's a partial list of companies that make stereo preamps with HT passthroughs:
Adcom, McCormack, Sonic Frontiers, Rogue, Levinson/Proceed, VAC, AR, Conrad-Johnson, PSE, and probably a few others I've forgotten.

You can do this with any stereo preamp, but if it doesn't have an HT passthrough feature you'll have to set the stereo preamp to a pre-determined reference volume level every time you switch to surround music/movies. Not a big deal, just a little bit of a pain and definitely more of a problem if other people(i.e. non-audiophiles) use your system. Hope this helps and best of luck.

Tim