pre-pro

In Home Theater Audio gear: short for pre-processor. In simple terms, it's the 'brains' of a home theater system. Usually a preamp for home audio systems that has the D/A converters (digital signal processing) built in and distribute the analog audio to self powered pro speakers or block amps in high end systems. Example: Marantz AV8801. Units have HDMI or USB inputs that can process the complex digital signals (ex. DTS, Dolby, etc.) and output it in RCA or XLR (analog) formats. THE BASICS >>>>> Block Amp - Audio amplifier with zero controls Pre Amp - Source Selection, Audio Volume control, no amplification. Pre-Pro - An pre amp with digital processing built in. Integrated Amp - A preamp and block amp combined in one unit Receiver - An integrated Amp with a tuner (Radio) and/or pre-pro built in. Everything in one box. Pre-Pro primary functions include: - Source selection - Volume control - Multi-channel digital to analog conversion - Delays and volumes for individual speakers - Upmixing, from 5.1 to 7.1 for example - Bass management Secondary Functions - - High resolution audio format decoding - Room correction - Video scaling - 2nd and 3rd zones - Media streaming - Internet radio