Lexicon MC-12, Anthem AVM-20, B &K Ref 30?

Well,

I've sat on my hands & bit my tongue long enough! Here's my vote for best budget surround & 2 channel pre amp. Try an Adcom GFP750 & mate it with a B&K REF 30. You'll have "Class A" 2 channel & a sophisticated "middle of the road" multi channel processor.
Perfect Vision is an offshoot of "The Absolute Sound".
Under Harry Pearson's guidlines, my Montana SPIIs, Pass Aleph P & Pass Aleph 2s are too "small, unsophisticated & underpowered (by 100 watts!) to take seriously. I live in Phoenix, AZ. I'm within 20 minutes of qualified, friendly dealers of Pass Labs, B&K, Mark Levinson, Proceed, Wilson, Rowland, Theta, Dynaudio, YBA, B&W & Revel, etc. My ears & my friends agree Harry Pearson is wrong. We vote with our pocketbooks & we don't get demo equipment for months at a
time.
My chiropractor has a Lexicon. He thinks it's great! He'll buy something else if I show him a processor that's appreciably better.

This cracks me up! The B&K ref 30, and almost the Adcom GFP750 preamp, is sonically no better than ANY RECEIVERS PREAMP SECTION!!! It's pretty well bland, warm, digtal sounding, and just plain "regular" sounding! Infact, sonically, it reminds me greatly of the much overhyped/rated Sony SDPEP9es that was rated so high!...another "noisy" blandish sonic dissapointment!
Now, I know I'm being a bit harsh, but really, you could do better with even an old used Acurus Act 3 than the B&K! And, as for the GFP750 preamp this last genleman mentioned, yes it's ok, but it's not class A material really! SOME ONE WAS PAID BIG TIME TO RATE THAT UNIT THAT HIGH!!!....OR SMOKING SOMETHING. I've sold that unit for years, in two high end stores, and it doesn't come close to competing with better TRUE class A preamps!...not hardly!

Lthkeeper,

If you want to call my opinion laughable, at least have the courtesy to mention by name the "TRUE class A preamps" you're referencing in your comment.
It's pretty hard to have a debate if your just going to say I'm wrong because you worked at two high end stores.

I will keep this short... IMO the Lexicon MC12 is the better choice. I have done a side by side comparison between the B&K, Krell and Lexicon. The Lexicon was the winner with Krell a close runner-up. For the price the B&K Ref 30 is not a bad choice, you may also want to listen to Parasound if you are trying to stay with in a certain budget.

Lexicon has a nice trade-in/up-grade policy (I am not sure of B&K or Anthem). Bottom line... listen to the processors you are comparison shopping for and purchase the one that sounds best to you. As I am sure you know what sounds good to me may not sound good to you or John Doe.

I purchased the Lexicon MC1 and six months later up-graded to the Lexicon MC12 balanced with no problems.

B&K does offer worthwhile features and is built well. You get high end sound at a mid-fi price tag.

Good Luck and happy listening.