I don't understand why people buy processors instead of a really good MCh preamp combined with the digital player of your choice which will have all the processing in it. It saves you the digital cables, and more importantly you can buy a preamp that is high quality and will not loose value, whereas processors are like computers in that regard. When you feel the digital source is obsolete then upgrade that, instead of both every couple of years. That said, I do realize that some people like the flexibility of a processor that has multiple switching/input capability with various formats and possibly FM/AM. But if music is a priority, I would argue that most processors try to fit too much in to that box whereas high quality MCh preamps are built with the music lover in mind and leave the video and digital processing to the source...