I am with Sid on this one. I have owned some pretty mediocre AV Receivers and I can't think of one that didn't have the preamp outputs. I currently have a Pioneer elite model that does. I paid about $175 for it on Ebay about 2 years ago. It's perfectly fine for my needs and has more processing that I even knew existing back then. It has Dolby True HD, HDMI, upsampling (video and audio), THX certified (like that means anything), etc. . .
Just remember, a two year old AV Receive is worth about 25% of its original list price. A 3 year old AVR is worth about 10% of its original list price. You can typically buy last years models, brand new from dealers for well over 50% off! So keep in mind if you buy new, you are throwing away 90% of your cost if you keep it for 3 years.
Heck, I bought a Krell Pre/pro which was still a current unit in production (though in its final months) for 60% off of the list price directly from the dealer with a full warranty. I still lost 33% of my purchase price when I sold it about 9 months later! That was a 9 month old model, out of production by the time I sold it for 6 months that I sold used for 27% of it original list price!
Just remember, a two year old AV Receive is worth about 25% of its original list price. A 3 year old AVR is worth about 10% of its original list price. You can typically buy last years models, brand new from dealers for well over 50% off! So keep in mind if you buy new, you are throwing away 90% of your cost if you keep it for 3 years.
Heck, I bought a Krell Pre/pro which was still a current unit in production (though in its final months) for 60% off of the list price directly from the dealer with a full warranty. I still lost 33% of my purchase price when I sold it about 9 months later! That was a 9 month old model, out of production by the time I sold it for 6 months that I sold used for 27% of it original list price!