Integrated Amps with HT bypass?

"03-06-07: Chadlesko
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"

Chad, I believe it was your old posting from 2 yrs ago that I somehow stumbled across recently. It gave me hope to see that someone else in this forum had the same equipment goals.

Thanks Chad and everyone else for the input. Please keep it coming....I know there must be others who have wondered about this.

So far, I've come up with these models that have HT Bypass/Passthrough:

PS Audio GCC-100 Control Amp
Musical Fidelity A3.5
Musical Fidelity A5
Sim Audio I3se
Arcam FMJ A22 (no bypass but has input "gain adjustment")
Krell KAV 300i
Bryston B-100 ("reprogrammable pass through")
Naim Nait 5i (unity gain)
Arcam A80 ("software configurable AV processor switch")

There are apparently others but these were the closest to my budget. My understanding is that some manufacturers call HT Bypass other names like "pass-through" "throughput" or "unity gain", but it is difficult to find dealers that truly understand these features or even know which models have them, so most of my research was conducted online or by phone, therefore I am open to any educated corrections in my list.......enilighten me please!

For now I am leaning towards the MF 3.5, the Naim Nait 5i, or one of the Arcams, but I am going to keep an eye on things and take a week or two to decide. Any suggestions on which would be most musical with my Paradigm Studio 20s v3 for 2.0 or 2.1 setup?

perreaux 200ip does, it has a direct amp connection to allow you to run directly into the amp section and control the volume with the receiver. I used it this way for a while. I went all 2 channel though with a classe pre-amp and a cheap $15 entech number cruncher dac off ebay to connect digitally to my cable box and dvd player and it sounds very good.

I believe that the Plinius integrateds have a HT bypass... My 8200 does...

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

If you like tubes, the VAC Avatar has a bypass. Also, I believe you can get the Blue Circle integrateds optioned with a bypass.

To elaborate, I currently have no amplifier,pre-amp, integrated or receiver of any kind, so my system is currently dormant.

I will be using whichever integrated I choose to power my Paradigm Studio 20s in a small room (10'x13'6") and my source is a Cambridge Audio D500se CD player.

I would like to get an integrated amp (for budgetary reasons) that will satisfy my need for quality 2 channel music but will also allow me to add an AV receiver to handle the processing and the additional speakers for my home theater needs later on down the line when my budget permits.

Therefore, I would like to take a look at whatever integrated amps have an HT bypass feature (I know there are not many), in order to make the future upgrade easier.

Thanks again for any wisdom in this matter.