A "pre pro" seems like a great idea prima facie in that (i) you have your choice of power amps, and (b) you ought to save a little money on the processor itself given it doesn't include power amps. It's certainly what I would like but:
- But most pre pros (or AVRs with pre-out) seem to be aimed up market whereas I'd like to spend US2000 or preferably less
- Apparently no models reviewed here at ASR are recommendable.
- 5.1 channels with basic bass management
- Room correction, maybe Dirac
- Analog line output, preferably balanced+differential
- HDMI 4K through put
- USB input from computer and or from, e.g., Raspberry Pi stream; (built-in streaming such as Volumio, BluOS, isn't essential)
- On-screen setup, (pretty standard these days)
- Effective remote control unit.