Reasonable Pre/Pro good for music & HT

[fstack]

Hello all,

Just picked up a nice NAD 5-ch amp - Silverline S250 - at a good price. Just wondering if anybody has opinions as to a decent pre/pro for under $1500 - one that will do well on music as well as HT. I really only need DD/DTS. I've already had an Angstrom 100 which sounded great, but was plagued with clicks and pops, and a Sherwood Newcastle AVP-9080R which had no problems, but sounded dull and uninvolving with music. I've seen some interesting stuff around the $1000 range, such as Proceed AVP, Classe ssp-25, Sunfire Theater Grand MK1....but have no experience with any of them. It has been a couple of years, and I've been out of the loop. Any thoughts, or other ideas?

Thanks!