All,
In the past few months, I have received a few emails from those interested in a home theater bypass switch for their Isabella. Currently, this option is not available.
I'm curious if there are enough people out there who require this feature in their home audio stereo preamp. In other words, those who have been very interested in the Isabella, but would not purchase it without this feature. How many of you are out there?
I finally made the time to look it over and I think it is possible to implement the HT bypass option in the Isabella: Located next to the 3rd input jack pair, it is possible to install a 4th input jack pair (close to the edge of the rear panel). A mini-toggle switch would be needed and installed somewhere on the rear panel (I think a good location for it would be the space between the input and output jacks, but close to the top so it is easy to reach with your finger to toggle up or down).
The Isabella has two set of outputs (OUTPUT 1 and OUTPUT 2). I give OUTPUT 2 the option to work in HT bypass mode, or in regular mode (via the toggle switch). When the customer runs in HT bypass mode, they do
not even need to turn ON the Isabella (it will simply pass the new, INPUT 4 directly to the OUTPUT 2 jacks via the switch - with nothing else in the path).
I have not tested it, but on paper, it looks good and I'm sure it will work very well. It would add to the cost, but nothing significant (maybe $200). It would be a mod to the Isabella offered by Red Wine Audio as an option. I would not make this feature a standard feature.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Best regards,
Vinnie
