Good God man, get ye a Lamm! They are the most musical preamps out there, not for lovers of hi-fi, but since you obviously know the difference between hi-fi and music, based on your desire for a stereo preamp in addition to your multichannel digital preamp (Meridian 568), then I feel confident in recommending the Lamms--there's nothing better. They do NOT have remote control, but they DO handle surround sound inputs. Well worth your consideration--hell, I'd say buy it sound unheard, they're that good. BTW, I went through tons of auditions and several purchases of surround sound preamps last year, so congrats on the 568. I did like the flexibility of the Lexicon's, and the bass management options of the Theta Casablanca are astounding. But the Meridian is much more musical than the competition, I love 'em! Also auditioned Proceed, Linn, and Krell....
If you had to make this decision....
I'm looking for some advice on preamps for my system. Aside from sounding great, a remote and HT loop/direct would be useful. I've heard the BAT50SE, CJ16LS, Melos 333 and Levinson 38S. None of these jumped out as clearly better. My system is Levinson 31 -> Audio Logic DAC -> Meridian 568 -> VTL MB750 -> Magnepan 3.6R. Any suggestions on what else to try?