As one moves up in higher quality audio equipment, the extra functions disappear. The emphasis becomes sound quality. Extra functions negatively impact sound quality. Tone controls, multiple functions in one box, and unnecessary functions are the realm of mid-fi. Twenty thousand dollar preamps do not have tone controls, or amps do not multiple amp outputs. So it is a question of what is important. Nothing wrong with having lots of functions, but there is a large cost to sound quality. Sound quality is secondary for 90 % of the folks out there. If you want great sound quality… then you are not going to get dual speaker outputs, tone controls, and lots of other stuff. It’s just a question of priorities..
You may be at the boundary of sound quality vs convenience. If you want to go forward, you may need to decide if the extra hassle of effort, cost, and research is worth it to achieve greater sound quality. I have been at this for fifty years. I have been reading, listening, and investing in single purpose components, increasing the sound quality of my system for decades. Perhaps this is just not your cup of tea. There is another way, Linn produces extremely high quality systems in a box. You can get a streamer, preamp, amp and even a phono stage all in one box (up to $34K… for a really high end solution). But, only two speaker outputs. Multiple speaker outputs is a low end feature.
