First pre/pro and hopefully last

I second the Krell's! They simply make a sonically superb and well built, easy to operate piece! I have yet to hear better for digital AV pre'pro's than the Krell's I've auditioned over the years. Many are "syrupy", "slow", digital sounding, dry, plain, artificial, noisy, or lacking in dynamics. The Krell's seem to define neutrality, purity, dynamics, and soundstage!..and a host of other audiophile descriptives. In short, you just don't go wrong with them in the front end of an HT/music system!...my experiences anyway.

All those pre/pro's suggested are good but expensive, its seems like they get outdated fairly fast. IF you're more into music get the Outlaw for $800 and spend the money on a good 2 ch pre which makes the biggest difference. Then when new technology comes along you can upgrade the Outlaw and not lose out that much , and the good 2 ch pre will last you a while.

Depending on when you want to make your purchase, BAT is coming out with a prepro 7.1 this June. It should be in the 6-7K range. Bel Canto is updating their prepro also but you will have to wait till late fall.

Gerry

Hi All
Update: I have an eVo6 with a Arcam cd23T with ring DAC on the way from fellow Agoner's. I don't need 7.1 for my 20'x12.5' room, so what other Krells are good. One Agoner has the SSP75, and likes it very much, and said 5.1 is all I need. These units do get out dated very quickly, so the other option I am thinking of, is going with a Supratek or VTL 5.5 as my 2 channel preamp with HT bypass. The Heron speakers I have match up best with tube gear, so a tube preamp maybe the best option. Still on the fence. Will keep you updated.

Tim

Tim:

I'm really interested to hear what route you end up taking. If I go the pre/pro with very strong 2-channel peformance route, it's most likely going to be either a Theta CasablancaIII or the Krell HTS 7.1. But the two channel pre with a HT pass through is also a possibility. The Rotel I have is really quite good at HT, but I'd like to take the 2-channel performance up a notch or two. On the two-channel side of things, I would probably go with something from Audio Research.

BTW, I recently picked up an FMJ CD23T (along with a matching FMJ A22 integrated and FMJ T21 tuner) for my office system (ProAc speakers). That is a very nice player. You are going to love it.

Take care, Tom.