Well, I knew the common differences, but I thought maybe there was more to it, so why by a $1000 pre-pro when the RX-V661 is $500 and can process PCM from HD DVD and blu-ray?

Well, you get added value from the pre-pro, such as not being able to do those things, costing more, and looking somewhat spiffy.

thats what I thought...There must be schools of thought that believe a pre-pro will give a better sound than a reciever with pre-outs...

You got it .

That huge power supply is still there in the AVR with preouts and could theoretically cause issue in the lower voltage signals associated with the video/audio signals before amplification. The stand alone pre/pro does not have this so they get to charge you more for less parts

The price may have something to do with lower manufacturing volumes. But I think it has more to do with what people are willing to pay. Companies differentiate products by price all the time even though the value may be similar to a lower priced product.

You feeling ok there Jack? Maybe its just me, but I see no editing tag...

Just like speaker cables The more they cost the better they must be.

Sorry, I just confused one of your posts with the one above it. Doing fine. Just old. (I love this "old" thing. You can blame just about anything on it. )

Sure, Robb, there're "schools of thought" that encourage the vain hope that spending more money on almost anything involved in audio would result in better sound. Of course there's no factual basis for this and the hopes are shown to be false when put to the(blind listening)test.