Surround Processor better than a Proceed AVP?

I have the Classe SSP800 and the Arcam AV888, sort of different animals, but both are very good sounding units.

Now I am seriously considering the NAD M15, Classe ssp-300, or Cary 11 - most likely the NAD. I have seen all of these for at or just over $1k. Hopefully it will be reliable and I could pair it with a decent blueray player with a 7.1 analog out for <$500. The alternative is to hold out for another year or so and hope to get a good sounding HDMI-audio capable unit for ~$2k (used) which could be paired with any sony/samsung $150 bluray.

Are there no musical pre/pros out there on the used market that lack DTS-MA and TrueHD, but support LPCM over HDMI 1.1? Really too bad that the NAD m15 does not. Looking at my media options (DVD, blueray, DirectTV,...) it seems like there is AC3/DTS which the AVP already supports and then DTS-MA/TrueHD which the NAD M15, Classe ssp-300, Cary 11 do not. I don't see any media with the middle formats (e.g. DTS 24/93) that the NAD M15, Classe ssp-300, Cary 11 have over the AVP and I really don't care that much about DPL2.

thanks again for everyone's responses.

Eric,

I don't see an advantage of replacing your AVP with any of the units you have listed. The Cary 11a was selling for around $2K in the past, and it does have two HDMI 1.3 inputs and can process the new codecs, but early versions of the firmware were buggy -- that's why they were being sold for $2K by disgusted owners. I haven't seen any for sale at that price recently, perhaps the latest firmware fixed most of the bugs.

db

db - looks like we both might be waiting for that magic $2k Cary 11a.

There is a Linn 5103 for sale here on Audiogon. That is one great sounding processor for both stereo and surround. Highly recommended.