I think the whole preamp concept is showing it's age. Obviously the units we have contain the (mostly) functionality we need, but the user interface is mired in the old 1960s signal switcher paradigm. What I'd love to see is a pre/pro with a 'task oriented' interface, ideally one that was user programmable.

For instance the concept of CD/tuner/DVD/Tape/etc inputs being physically assigned is bogus in the current market where we might have multiple DVD players or a single player that does multiple formats.

Ideally we should be able to create a labeled 'task' that would contain information about the audio source, prefered formats and decoding (in order), video source, signal routing, etc.

Or is this way too geeky? It could come with presets, much like a programmable remote comes with basic functioanlity, but able to learn more.