A good A/V preamp?

Just like the title says Im looking for a good audio/video preamp. Curently I have a Carver CT-28V but Ive been thinkin about tryin something new.... what is everyones opinion?

What are you looking to do with it?
Do you care in which price range?
Opinions will be all over the place unless you tell us more.

Good point... Sorry about that.


I do alot of 2 channel listening so Id like one that works well there but has a decent sound in 5.1 HT sound.

As for price range... Im a poor 22 year old lol... so Id like to find something in the 150-300 dollar range. I got my Carver for about 200, and I like it but Im always lookin to try new stuff.

Well that leaves out anything by Sunfire....

Unfortunately, when you say "separate" preamp/processor nowadays, the vendors see you coming and think you are a rich 22 year old. Anything decent is at least double your price range.
You can look for a used Sunfire Theater Grand but, again, it will be above that range unless you get reeeaaaally lucky.

A used CARVER HR-895 comes to mind as a potential solution. It comes to mind a lot because mine is on "permanent loan" to my "best" friend It is a Pro-Logic receiver but, here's the beauty, you can remove the jumpers in the back between the preamp and amplifier section and send any channel to a separate amplifier. Although it does not have the latest Digital Surround formats (Dolby Digital or DTS), it will do a decent job decoding Dolby digital content using Dolby pro-logic. It also comes with goodies (sonic holography, dual zone, etc.) that you don't get these days for less than $1K. It even has a phono section (you might need to ask someone twice your age what that's for... )

That's just one opinion. Let's see what the rest of the board can come up with.

What amp/amps are you driving with the pre?

Ive seen those carver HR-895's before and thought about trying one. How do they compare to my CT-28v? Ill keep an eye out for another one.


As for amps... currently I am not running anything but 2 channel, so all I have is a Crown CE1000. But I just got a HDTV the other day so Im thinkin of playin with the Home Theater thing for a little while! Id really LOVE to get a Infinity Beta 5.1 setup but Ill have to wait till the boob tube is paid off for that. I was leaning towards getting something like a Carver 705 for the center and rears though. Im open to suggestions there as well.

I wish I could afford any sunfire stuff One of these days... One of these days. For now Im poor though lol

check ebak for a B&k reference series. they were 2-3k new and I picked up a reference 20 for $200. its 5.1 and does everything I ask of it!

Aaron

I use a Yamaha receiver primarily as a preamp. I am only using it's amplifier section for the rear speakers, and will probably stop that when I score another Carver Amp. Most (5, 6, 7).1 receivers have separate pre-outs for each channel. You could buy a used one for cheap, and hook up your Crown to the front L/R outs, and use the receiver's amps for the rest until you get the scratch for more amps. Once you have all the amps for each leg, you'll be ready to replace the receiver with a real A/V pre-amp, like a Sunfire. At least that's what I plan on doing.

smudaaar... Ill definatly keep an eye out for one of those... nothing on there right now in the referance series but Ill keep watching...


BillD... Thats great advice. Since I only plan on upgrading everything as money allows Ill probably follow your advice! Sounds like I should start looking for a good receiver.

I'm also using a Yamaha receiver (7.1) as a pre-amp & processor. It works very well. I am using M-500's on all channels except the rear surrounds which are running through the Yamaha's amps (130 WPC). So far, so good.

Do the newer a/v receiver have preouts where you can go around the amplifier or do youneed to look for an older one?

My Yammie is only a 5.1 (old), but stereo_dogs is a newer 7.1. I think you'll find that most decent receivers have pre-outs for all of the channels (just look in the back or ask). Mine is an RX-V992. I think you can find stuff on eBay if you're patient. Mine looks very similar to this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Yamaha-RX-V995-5-1-channel-Receiver_W0QQitemZ180142017904QQihZ008QQcategoryZ14981QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
but I'm not recommending a non-function model!

Well I would have thought that the better models would have preouts to go around the amp but ya never know. Im considering Denon and Yamaha right now... still watching for some Carver, and B&K stuff... open to more suggestions as well.

My Yamaha RX-V2600 has outputs for all 7 channels. This is how I have my external amps connected. It has no amp loop, like many of the older receivers. The amp loop was used for processors, etc. when you wanted to loop the signal out to an external processor and then back in to the receiver. But if you look, most of the RX series Yamaha receivers will have outputs for all channels. I don't know about other brands, but Denon is set-up alot like Yamaha, I looked at both before buying.