Low(ish) budget receivers with pre-outs?

@oitsliver Are you talking about setting up a combo system, 2-channel with add-on HT receiver? Does your pre-amp have HT bypass? Not necessary, but a nice convenience.

I don't have any specific recommendation. I've previously built combo systems, adding Denon, Sony and Onkyo receivers to handle the HT processing, center channel and surround speaker power. Worked great.

The only recommendation I can make is to insure the HT receiver is rated to power 4 Ohm speakers, if you are going to use 4 Ohm speakers for your center channel and surround speakers. Most inexpensive HT receivers are not rated for 4 Ohm speakers. At least not last time I looked. I had to go with one that was toward the top of the brand's line.

Good luck, and enjoy...

Sorry but I'm confused.You have an amp & preamp what is the receiver for?
 NO Digital inputs on PreAmp for Toslink?

Sorry I wasn’t being clear. The receiver would be used to input my Apple TV and DVD player via hdmi and output the video to my projector and output the audio to my speakers

Receiver would essentially be used to add HDMI’s into the mix 

good tip on the ohm’s stuff. Would the receiver still need to power 4 ohms even if the external preamp and amp setup are the ones that are powering the speakers? Sorry if that’s a dumb question 

@oitsliver  - No, you would not need to be concerned with supporting 4 Ohm speakers, unless you were going to use the receiver to power add-on speakers (center channel and surrounds). If you are only going to use it to process your HT sources, and do video switching, etc., you won't need to worry about the power amp portion of the HT receiver being able to support 4 ohm speakers.