2 years ago I was on the same quest...at that time the following had HT bypass:
Musical Fidelity A5 - I bought this one and loved it
Musical Fidelity A3.5
Musical Fidelity older models as well
Krell 300xi & 400xi (Various Integrated Models)
Plinus 8500 or 9200 - I think have HT Bypass
I highly recommend the A5...might push your budget by a few hundered, but it worked perfectly sounded fantastic and had a good phono MM stage if you want to try it down the road as well...
As a side note...you might consider buying a Receiver first. For $1000 used you can get a nice one that would give good sonics for 2 channel and then buy your 2 channel integrated or Pre/Amp combo as money allows. I had/have an Arcam 200AVR that I used with the A5 and now use with my seperates...for my HT needs I see no need to go further. But, Arcam, Rotel and others sell excellent sounding units that will rival integrateds at your price point. Just a thought...the A5 was better but the Arcam is very close for a few hundred less and I sold the A5 for seperates while I see no need to move on from the Arcam!
Happy Listening
Musical Fidelity A5 - I bought this one and loved it
Musical Fidelity A3.5
Musical Fidelity older models as well
Krell 300xi & 400xi (Various Integrated Models)
Plinus 8500 or 9200 - I think have HT Bypass
I highly recommend the A5...might push your budget by a few hundered, but it worked perfectly sounded fantastic and had a good phono MM stage if you want to try it down the road as well...
As a side note...you might consider buying a Receiver first. For $1000 used you can get a nice one that would give good sonics for 2 channel and then buy your 2 channel integrated or Pre/Amp combo as money allows. I had/have an Arcam 200AVR that I used with the A5 and now use with my seperates...for my HT needs I see no need to go further. But, Arcam, Rotel and others sell excellent sounding units that will rival integrateds at your price point. Just a thought...the A5 was better but the Arcam is very close for a few hundred less and I sold the A5 for seperates while I see no need to move on from the Arcam!
Happy Listening