New pre/pro ideas

[pgblu]

Hi all,

I joined a couple of months ago and have been reading this interesting blog ever since. I have an older set up and started out as an audio only kind of guy (yup, back in the 80's & 90's) and have now changed things over the years to support HT. My current set up is a Parasound AVC-1800 (pre/pro) with an Adcom GFA-555 (L & R front), Adcom GFA-2535 (center and rear). I use a Sony BDP-S300 analog outputs to get True HD & DD Plus (fed into the pre/pro). There are 2 problems with this arangement:
1. no HDMI inputs or HDMI switching
2. no 7.1
I would like to update the pre/pro; however, I don't want to pay for a receiver and not use the amps, as this seems like a waste of money. Also, I don't need the amps; and, most amps that come in receivers are no where near as good as a dedicated amplifier.
The challenge I have is that the pre/pros are either a) super expensive or b) receivers with pre-amp out...
Any ideas on a reasonable upgrade? Say, $1500 - $2000? Less would be fine, too.

BTW, if it helps, the rest of my HT: Vandersteen 2C's (front L & R), Vandersteen VSM-1's (rear), Vandersteen VCC-2 (center), Vandersteen V2W (sub), Sony KDL-52XBR2, SOTA Sapphire (turntable, irrelevant to this discussion...).