Proceed PAV as a two channel preamp..

I would be leery of a seller who came to your house and would not let you listen. Sounds like he may be hiding something. It is one thing to buy by mail. But, when someone comes to your door, you should get 20 minutes to hook it up and test it. All it takes is one input and 2 speaker connections. I would be cautious of the seller.

You need to remember that a major price factor when the PAV was new is that it had SOTA video switching that is now mostly obsolete. IIRC, Stereophile claimed it would be rated B as an audio preamp, whereas it was rated A as an AV processor. I thought the sound with the Cary Cinema 11a in the link was not quite up to that with the PAV.

The AudiogoN blue book prices are all over the map, but with more recent sales trending below $500. They come nicely packaged with a comprehensive manual that you might consult before playing. The PAV has great flexibility so you can assign inputs and outputs. It's not as easy as plug and play. You need to specify input and output. The PAV has a nice video menu.

db

I've owned and used the Proceed AVP for the last 8 years. While I upgraded every other component of my system (some a few times), the beautiful rendering of music by the Proceed's DAC not only made me keep it, but I bought a second one for back up. You can find the AVP here or on Ebay for around $650 if you are patient (I got my second one for $500), and the AVP (unlike the PAV) supplies Dolby Digital and DTS for home theater. I don't care about running my video through the preamp, so it's archaic video connections mean nothing to me . . . all I care about is the sound, and for that the Proceed is hard to beat for the price.

I just purchased an AVP on Audiogon in fantastic condition. I'm using it mainly for 2-channel but I'm running video through it as well. I have it paired with a Proceed Amp2. When using the analog inputs with MIT MI-330 interconnects and a Marantz CD17 mkII CD player,
the sound was open but lacked focus. There was a noticeable improvement once I connected the Marantz via optical cable to the AVP's DAC. For the prices they're available for these days, I'd roll the dice and grab one. If it breaks, move on to something else....that's the only risk here. It's extremely hard to beat for $450.00.