Don Sachs DS2 vs Wells Audio Commander

It misses some the tube magic – for sure – but it is slightly more articulate without being fatiguing. And since it's solid state, I can leave it on during the day without concern of burning out tubes.

Yeah, therein lies the rub, eh?  Probably why running a tube pre with SS amp is so popular.  If possible you might want to look at a Class-A amp that IME does about the best job of blurring the lines between tubes and SS.  Something like the Clayton Audio S100 is really nice because it does that but has a high/low bias switch so if you want to leave it on 24/7 the electric bill doesn’t take such a large hit.  FWIW...

With that pre why are you even looking around? The Sachs seems like an end-game level preamp — at least IMHO — unless you’re willing/able to spend $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

No.  I’d bring up the LTA MZ2 with upgraded power supply (not better just different) but it doesn’t have an HT bypass — don’t think Sachs offers one either though.  Not hard to live without HT bypass IME.

I’ll take the under on this one.