Thank you for your interest in Sherwood Newcastle. We have two receivers whose release is imminent. Our R-872 model uses the new Cirrus Crystal CS-49700 Audio DSP chip while our R-972 uses dual TI DSP's. Both of these models offers a full suite of preamp outputs and is suitable for use as a pre/pro in a high performance A/V system. We have not announced plans for a dedicated pre/pro although we are working on same.
Here is my reply from SN when I asked about the new 965 or 972.