earlist pre's with PL II

[Tarheel_]

researching models/brands for the future move to separates. Budget is limited (<$1000) so i'm looking strictly at used market. I really enjoy PLII with music and TV so i must have this. Can someone suggest a good entry level preamp with the following;

must have's;
decode DD,DTS,PL II
some form of Bass Management
5.1 (not setup for more)


Don't care about;
video switching
remote
tuner quality
looks or color

[Swerd]

Try bidding on this used B & K Ref 50 on Audiogon. The guy is asking for $1300 or best offer for a 3 year old model. I am familiar with its predecessor the Ref 30 model which lacked PL II, and its a lot better than entry level. It has the most capable bass management I've ever seen, with built-in digital notch filter capability in the 20-200 Hz range. Read about it at the B & K site.

[topspeed]

I was going to recommend B&K, but Swerd beat me to it. You can probably find a nice used Adcom pre/pro on audiogon. This may sound sacriligeous, but have you considered a used AVR and using it as a pre/pro? A nice lower model Denon or Yammie might be just the trick as their shortcomings are usually with the amps and it sounds like you already have a multi-channel amp ready to go. Just a thought.

[Tarheel_]

thanks guys for the recommendation, i'll do some research. I'm not ready to pull the trigger, but also am budgeting for a 5 channel amp.

I actually have a nice HK AVR525 receiver, i love the receiver, but want to move into separates and find out what the fuss is about. I teamed a Denon AVR2801 and NAD 2 channel before, but never a separate 5 channel amp.

I also researched the Lexicon DC-1&2 models. Upgrades can bring them close to today's formats and such. They run in my range. I do love the PL II and Logic 7 and the Lexicon debuted the Logic7.

Research is half the fun of it....

[Woochifer]

If you're limiting your universe to only those separates with DPLII, then you need to consider only units that were introduced from about mid-2001 onwards. Keep in mind that processor preamp separates have longer update cycles than receivers do, so some high end processors did not include DPLII until late-2002 or early-2003. (I believe this was the case with the Sunfires, Anthems, and Lexicons, among others) As topspeed suggested, it's perfectly legit to start by plugging a multichannel amp into a receiver and initially use that as the processor.