A couple thoughts regarding the Black Ice:
1) You have to remove the cover to access the tube, which involves unscrewing a few screws on the sides of the unit and a few more on the rear. They use standard philips head screws on the rear, but a small hex screw heads on the sides for some reason. If you don't have a set of allen wrenches around, it might be a hassle. But the cover slides off quite easily. The tube is held quite firmly in the tube socket, which is a great thing for a solid connection, but does make removing the tube a bit difficult. I had to use enough force that the PCB was flexing to a significant degree, and I had to be a bit careful rocking the tube back and forth to get it unseated without damaging the PCB. This could be a long-term concern if you like to roll tubes frequently, but will probably be fine if you just swap a few until you find the one you like best.
2) Don't discount the value of only having a single tube to swap in the Black Ice - high quality tubes are expensive, especially when you have to find matched pairs or buy them in quads.
3) The "surround sound" feature of the Black Ice is not equivalent to a home theater surround sound system. It's just processing the stereo signal and making a surround-effect with the rear speakers. It's not capable of reproducing the four independent channels from a home theater processor.
4) I've been mighty impressed with the Black Ice sound thus far vs. my Don Sachs preamp, which I have heard others say is heads above the Freya preamp. While I might be interested in exploring upgrades down the line for the sake of knowing how much better it could get, I currently feel no need to do so. It's performing at a high level in stock form. You might just agree after 45 days of trial period (vs the 15 Schiit gives you for the Freya).