Hi, you can get a Mapletree preamp customized with HT pass thru, sub out and upgraded with a high quality attenuator and caps for much less that what you are eyeing. Not to mention the 6sn7/12sn7 tubes are much better than 12au7 so you may end up with a better sounding preamp.
2.1 tube pre with ht bypass?
Ok, so unwillingly i had to replace my parasound p5 due to the fact that it had an inherent imbalance that the parasound guys couldn’t address even after having it sent out for repairs twice. It also had other issues. I really liked how it sounded but I got tired of having the center image shifted waay to the right and having to compensate for it, which made the soundstage do peculiar things. What replaced it was an emotiva xsp-1 gen 2 which by all accounts was a superior pre, at least on paper and in fact, some things it does better but with my speakers (klipsch palladium p37f) the midrange is not a pleasant affair. So what I think I need is a tube pre with bass management and ht bypass. Does such a thing exist?? I’ve searched and searched to no avail. The rest of the system is emotiva xpa-2 gen2, schiit bifrost multibit (and other stuff that’s inconsequential on this thread) and that is unlikely to change.