It's hard to follow behind bob's post (glad they let you trade the crayons for a keyboard, by the way), but I think it's worth remembering what we're facing when talking about a modern SSP. There's the long-familiar aspects of home theater (component video inputs, coaxial and optical audio inputs, and a 7.1 analog for those stubborn multichannel analog sources). There's the new face of home theater (HDMI v1.3, with its army of new audio codecs, its digital video, and its ornery HDCP police). There's the bevy of speakers to support (7.1 output, bass management, time delays, channel trims, RCA/XLR output requests, calls for multiple subwoofer outputs). There's the long-familiar video switching (including transcoding composite and s-video to component for those random devices like VHS, LaserDisc, and some game consoles as well as the component inputs themselves). There's the new era of video processing (transcoding all those analog sources to digital, scaling and deinterlacing, 3:2 pulldown, video bypass modes, and so forth). There's an expectation of room correction (be it Audyssey, Trinnov, or some other creature). There's a remote that is expected to control the SSP and probably whatever other devices are around it (although I still prefer a third-party universal so I can get just what I like). There's an interface for installing firmware updates, maybe an RS232 port for integration with fancy control systems, and the occasional request for a network interface. There's a second zone for feeding those dining room or deck speakers. There's even the radio, which is no longer merely AM/FM - now we're asking about HD Radio, XM Radio, and Sirius as well. The only reasons we see stereo analog inputs at all is because we need them for those same devices that we're keeping composite and s-video for (and because by "simply" feeding them through an ADC we can lump them in with everything else) and for the occasional high-quality analog source (which could be a standalone DAC, a high-end CD player, or - yes - a turntable with phono pre-amp). After all of that gets taken care of, is there still time / energy / budget to include a phono pre-amp of significant performance (something on par with what the RR2150 got)? If something is going to give in all of this, it's not surprising that the phono pre-amp is high on the list, especially since many home theaters aren't going to include vinyl.