After responding, last night, a thought came to me: I might bypass the two channel music mode, pre/pro problem by simply adding an analogue preamp. My amplifier has both balanced and unbalanced inputs (currently using XLR for the 990). I could run all my analogue sources through the analogue preamp, while running my sat box, Oppo 981 through the 990. This way, I might achieve the best of both worlds, possibly! lol

I've not heard of Audio Perseus. With my amp offering both input types, however, I could use any preamp I want, maybe! lol

Just a thought, another potential approach.

John

ronrags,
if you are looking into tube pre-amp ... sounds like you need to have 2 systems.

A much cheaper (or is "more affordable" the PC term of choice?) route which would give you a lot of the sonic benefits of a tube preamp, ronrags, is to put a tube buffer like the Yaqin or Musical Fidelity between the 990 and power amplifier stereo (i.e., left front and right front) channels. You get tube sound and complete transparency for HT, since the sonic treatment is for the output of the 990. The only downside is that you can't use balanced interconnects in those channels, which means accepting 3db less volume at the same control settings. Nothing I've read says that's a problem unless the pre and power amps are really far apart an/or there's a very high amount of electronic noise, in which cases balanced interconnects do have an advantage.

I got a Yaqin for Christmas and sure haven't regretted it, even with the stock tube, which some users say can be improved on for treble sweetness. Cost: $175 plus shipping. It's Chinese-made, which might dissuade some, but the UK-made Musical Fidelity starts at more than twice the price and isn't even as good, according to http://www.epinions.com/content_312424107652, which is what convinced me.

What can you lose?

John,

That's exactly what I stated, but there may leakage between the balanced and unbalanced terminals on your amp. On my Outlaw 7500, I use balance cables from the 990. When I throw the toggle switch on the back of the 7500 to unbalanced, I could hear hiss coming from that speaker which means there must be leakage between these 2 connections. I don't what amp you are using, but make sure there isn't any leakage before you invest in a pre-amp.

Just in case, you may need to make sure that the AV processor is off when using the stereo pre-amp and visa-versa.

Psyprof1,

The use of a tube buffer is an option, but I still think a dedicated stereo pre-amp is the way to go concerning sound quality as Altec stated.