Harold, this question should be right up your alley, even though it's in
the nature of what you quaintly call "shopping advice". I will note, note,
that advice about my question is welcome from anybody, including Ferstler,
but I will also utter the caveat that any response from Krooger will be
dismissed summarily.

I want to upgrade my surround preamp. My Lexicon is getting long in the
tooth, and I might want to try out 7.1 or 7.2 surround. (Don't have the
speakers yet, but I'll have to match my existing speakers, so that's not
really an issue.) My other priorities are minimal -- I don't need a phono
stage, I don't need Zone 2 distribution, and I don't need dual subs. A
tuner would be a plus, a learning remote is unnecessary, but OSD is
valuable to me. Another plus would be component video switching.

The main concern is price. I'm open to buying used; in fact, that's my
preference, since it's favorable in terms of bang for the buck.