Opinion needed: Pre-Amp (bypass a dac)?
 

Again, thanks for everyone's patience with my ground up system build. My next step is adding a pre-amp. My initial thoughts (desire) is to patiently wait for a C1000T which is built like a tank, has a certain prestige/rarity and matches my mcd1000 and mda1000. 2nd choice is a C500T and 3rd choice is a C50. IF I were to go with the most practical and cost effective choice, the C50, I would miss out on adding tubes but would gain controls to tweak the sound on crappy old recordings and would save enough money to add another component, like a tuner, men 220, etc. ***also, I'd like to add 5.1 or 7.1 capability too so one of the MX series I guess? 121 or 151 (don't want to spend a lot of $) Ideas?

The MX150 or or MX151 will give you HT, two channel analog and digital DAC, plod Room Perfect like an MEN220. Great performance and value.

I guess I just didn't think this through very well, it's been a long day.

MX150 and 151 also have a pure analog mode to bypass digital signal processing. Few realize that capability. The manual directs one on the set up.

Kee p to your original plan and find a C1000 , pure beauty

Yes you can bypass DSP, but it's not pure analog. Everything is converted to digital, even if it's fed analog.

Agree 100%
None of the mentioned processors will come close in sound quality to a high quality 2-ch pre amp.

I heard that was true for the 150 but that the 151 is different and does not convert everything to digital even if fed analog.

They both operate the same. Read owners manuals. The inputs can be converted to bypass digital processing. It is a major misconception. However if you need room correction as most will benefit from room perfect since precise speaker placement or room treatments are not within easy reach for most people.

My problem is that my wife wants, at minimum, 5.1 surround sound so I need to add the most affordable pre-owned Mc brand processor that doesn't diminish my potential investment into a c100 or c500 for 2 channel. I thought the 151 would just pass the signal without any redundant conversions.