You will not find a good home theater D/A processor for $1000, new or used. Period! Your best bet is to run your movie sound through a stereo unit and forget the home theater processor. If you listen to stereo music 70% of the time with this setup, you will be miserable 70% of the time. I have been through all this before. Learn from my mistakes.
Name this Preamp
I'm needing some help in narrowing down a quality pre-amp that will be used 70% for music and 30% for home theater. The pre/processor must have an analog bypass with superior clarity for music - I don't want the stereo signal converted to digital via A/D-D/A. The pre/proc must decode DD, DTS and pro-logic (EX capabilities a bonus)It must also have a 5.1 (or 7.1) pre-in/out to accomodate SACD, DVD-A or both. Since CD processing will be done with an external DAC, I don't need the best DAC for the front channels but must be of high quality for all channels. The pre/proc must also have good bass management capabilities. The budget for this is around $1000 and used equipment is fine. What out there fits these requirements???