I just bought an Onkyo PRSC 5509. It does just about everything a pre-pro can do, sounds great, and is available new for well under $2K. It includes Audyssey xt32 which AFAIK is the mother of all room EQ systems. I'd be reluctant to compare it with a SOTA pre-pro, because I don't really have any experience with such an animal.
My set up is 2.2 music only (2 x 12" Rythmik subs with either Ohm 100s or Maggie MMGs, depending on the moment), so I use none of the extensive array of included video features and, therefore, can't really speak to how well they work. The Onkyo replaced some high quality electronics (some combination of Theta Casablanca I, ARC LS-25 or Joule LA 100/III & NHT X-2, & Velodyne SMS-1, & Benchmark DAC-1 or Cambridge DacMagic) in my system. My goal was to streamlines boxes and the power-up sequence (which it did), without sacrificing too much SQ.
To my ear, it sounds notably better than the old set-up, which came as a very pleasant surprise.
I can confidently say the thing sounds pretty incredible.
Marty
My set up is 2.2 music only (2 x 12" Rythmik subs with either Ohm 100s or Maggie MMGs, depending on the moment), so I use none of the extensive array of included video features and, therefore, can't really speak to how well they work. The Onkyo replaced some high quality electronics (some combination of Theta Casablanca I, ARC LS-25 or Joule LA 100/III & NHT X-2, & Velodyne SMS-1, & Benchmark DAC-1 or Cambridge DacMagic) in my system. My goal was to streamlines boxes and the power-up sequence (which it did), without sacrificing too much SQ.
To my ear, it sounds notably better than the old set-up, which came as a very pleasant surprise.
I can confidently say the thing sounds pretty incredible.
Marty