I dont see the reason for such a feature on a stereo preamp. Why would you not just run your DVD player or sat/cable box into the processor digitally? If you want to listen to it through the stereo preamp, send analog. Am I missing something here?
A few weeks ago, I bought a used BAT VK-D5SE tubed
CD-player. Why spend thousands for one of the best CD
players in the world and just use it as a transport? I spent
boo-coo bucks to hear that kickin' tubed CD player analog
output. I can (and was) feeding an $80 DVD player's PCM
output to my high-end Krell pre/pro DACs. It sounded
great, but believe me there's just no comparison to the
sound I get from the BAT through a good stereo preamp.
The Krell-280p preamp I use with the BAT has a HT bypass...
...but I can't use it. I use balanced XLR interconnects for
both my CD player and the HT pre/pro. But the KAV-280p
preamp only has
one pair of XLR inputs. D'oh! So I must
swap XLR interconnects to my amp when changing from
HT to stereo. I mostly listen to music anyway, so it's not
a big deal.
I was aware of this limitation when I bought the preamp.
The KAV-280p is the best full-balanced preamp I could
afford. I really wanted the new Krell 222, but I couldn't
justify spending an additional $7K just to get another
pair of balanced inputs. I'll crawl around on my knees
once or twice a week to save seven grand any day.