Upgrading Krell HTS2 to Krell 7.1 HTS

On the avsforum, Kris Deering of "Secrets of Home Theater
and HiFi" seems to imply that both these processors have
exactly the same DACs and analog sections. Watch out for
his review later this month.

However, in my communication with Krell, they mentioned that
the HTS 7.1 has a "significantly" better preamp section
which benefits the overall sound of the processor. After
the DACS, the signal is routed through the preamp
section.It was based on this input that I chose to go along
with the HTS 7.1 The other 2 advantages of HTS 7.1 (hardware
upgradability, and second zone output) were not that
important to me. So if what Kris Deering says is correct,
I will be very pissed !

I am desperately torn between the Krell Showcase line and the more expensive HTS line.Is anyone familiar enough with Krell to help guide my decision?Do you really get so much more for the money with the HTS line?

I own the showcase, I was going to do the same thing that you want to do, the showcase uses the same dac as the 7.1, and has eq, the only difference was in the preamp section, but to my ears they sounded the same, the showcase is almost half as much as the 7.1, it is a bargain,good luck