What Pre/Pro do you recommend?

Guys, we all have recommendations, but like Z said, he has to figure it out. There are a ton of great options used that have pass throughs and sound great for what he wants to accomplish. I redid my system last year and was going to go the 5.2 route, but when I went to listen I couldn't find anything that even came close to a decent 2 channel set up and I just didn't want to go the separate processor route. Since you like to have that set up, going with a 2 channel pre with HT pass lets you save money when you want to upgrade your processor. Go give some pre amps a listen and let us know what you think sounds good to you.

I suspect the idea of going out and listening to a bunch of processors is over-rated, unless you can take each home in install it in your setup for a good insitu evaluation.

db

Not so much overrated as impractical. The demos do not have to be in your own room/system but, to be informing, in the same room/system, as with any component.

As for the various roomEQ options, that can be assessed more objectively by reading reviews/measurements of their capabilities and usability.

"03-21-15: Bob_reynolds
Based on the picture of your room (fairly narrow and low ceiling), room modes will become an issue at higher frequencies than in larger rooms. So even with music you'll likely have problems. You can find room mode calculators online; there's an Excel spreadsheet at Harman's site. If I had your room, I'd consider products providing room mode correction.

In my opinion, the downside of an analog 2-channel system, even more so in your room, is not having bass management. Even the Oppo suggestion, which doesn't provide room mode correction, gets you bass management (which could help with room modes)."

Yes, but like all your other posts, you're just guessing. The thought of not getting a 2 channel preamp because it doesn't have bass management is absurd. Why don't you bring up all that you will be missing if you use a HT processor over a stereo preamp?

We've been down this road now a few times and you always say that I have something against you personally. That's not true. You just don't know what you're doing. You can't look at a spec sheet and tell how something is going to sound. To be fair, the last time we got into this I took your quote and started a thread to keep my personal opinion out of it. Out of all the people that responded, I don't think anyone sided with your point of view. Is that no clear enough for you? What is it that you think you know that no one else here knows?