Proceed PAV as a two channel preamp..

It is an exceptional sounding unit that holds up to today's standards in my opinion. It had a companion box called the pdsd to gain Dolby digital capability. The PAV needs to be running a specific firmware to talk to the pdsd, so you really should not rely on finding a pdsd down the road.

I have seen dozens of these trade for under $500, so unless the one you are considering is museum condition with original everything I would pass.

I have a Proceed PAV and a PAV/PDSD pair. The PAV is analog, the PDSD digital. They need to be purchased as a pair for surround sound. The sound quality is excellent. You may be able to have a PAV repaired by other than Harmon, even locally. My units, although no longer in use, served reliably for decades, and still sound fine when I fire them up. I replaced the PAV/PDSD pair with a Cary Cinema 11a to get the lossless codecs and HDMI. I soon gave up on HDMI. I replaced the Cary with a Parasound JC-2 analog stereo preamp, and use an Oppo BDP-105 for surround and the latest codecs. Stereo from the Oppo, a Sony XA5400ES, and JC-3 phono stage go through the JC-2, surround from the Oppo goes directly to the amps.

I wouldn't as leery about the PAV as the previous posters.

db

I would be leery of a seller who came to your house and would not let you listen. Sounds like he may be hiding something. It is one thing to buy by mail. But, when someone comes to your door, you should get 20 minutes to hook it up and test it. All it takes is one input and 2 speaker connections. I would be cautious of the seller.

You need to remember that a major price factor when the PAV was new is that it had SOTA video switching that is now mostly obsolete. IIRC, Stereophile claimed it would be rated B as an audio preamp, whereas it was rated A as an AV processor. I thought the sound with the Cary Cinema 11a in the link was not quite up to that with the PAV.

The AudiogoN blue book prices are all over the map, but with more recent sales trending below $500. They come nicely packaged with a comprehensive manual that you might consult before playing. The PAV has great flexibility so you can assign inputs and outputs. It's not as easy as plug and play. You need to specify input and output. The PAV has a nice video menu.

db

I've owned and used the Proceed AVP for the last 8 years. While I upgraded every other component of my system (some a few times), the beautiful rendering of music by the Proceed's DAC not only made me keep it, but I bought a second one for back up. You can find the AVP here or on Ebay for around $650 if you are patient (I got my second one for $500), and the AVP (unlike the PAV) supplies Dolby Digital and DTS for home theater. I don't care about running my video through the preamp, so it's archaic video connections mean nothing to me . . . all I care about is the sound, and for that the Proceed is hard to beat for the price.