What processor?

I highly recommend the Integra 9.8/9.9 processor.

See my comments on the current thread Integra any good and this link www.stereophile.com/hirezplaye...

In a nutshell: supports all the SOTA standards and is likely to meet all your needs for quite awhile since the industry has not caught up on the software side.

Audyssey EQ is fast, EZ to use and sounds amazing. Can't imagine doing HT without it.

GUI is well thought out and the manual is a model of clarity which is unusual in the genre - especially given the flexibility of the unit.

It is solidly built and impeccably finished in that very special Japanese hi-end receiver way (Integra is Onkyos flagship high end brand.) And my personal bias is that no one handles integrating all this technology like the best Japanese companies - certainly nowhere near the price point.

Most important it works really well. It sounds and video looks very good - nothing I am aware of comes close for the money.

Try my links:
http://www.stereophile.com/hirezplayers/108mitr/index.html
[url]http://www.stereophile.com/budgetcomponents/508mitr/index.html[/url]

Integra makes really, really good amplification. A few years ago, it surprisingly drove my CS5's about as well as I could want, without spending mega bucks. I compared it to many other pieces. They were hard to drive, dropping to below 2 ohms at about 70Hz as I recall.
As to processors, the Lexicon is very good, and the Receiver is good, as it's a Bryston design. I like the Lexicon, as their home products are a small portion of their efforts, with most of their focus being on studio work, at least it has been. They create the algorythms for delays, echo, etc, so I was told, and therefore know how to pull that apart very well.
B&K made, don't know if they still do, an excellent receiver.
Also, just wondering...given the price of labor in China, are the Japanese shifting any of their mfg to China these days. I don't know...
Wouldn't that be odd? Or, maybe not.

Larry

I've had the Integra 9.8, the Anthem D2 and the newly released Cary 11a which retails for $3500. The former two have integrated video sections for scaling and distribution of the video signal and are somewhat more feature rich.

The Cary 11a, however imo, sounds the best of the 3 in terms of 2 channel by-pass and HT. Again, imo, the other two were somewhat sterile although very clear sounding.

The Cary 11a is just the audio pre/pro and does not contain video processing; it will pass a HDMI signal to your TV and of course accept HDMI for lossless decoding by the unit. It had some initial issues upon release but I belive those have been resolved with the recent software update.

My 2 cents.