need reasonable preamp w/headphone

thanks to all for their input. I will try and give the Anthem a listen and then work my way up the scale.

OK, now don't laugh toooo much, but the Music Fidelity X-Can V2 is an excellent pre-amp in it's own right. It's got high end written all over it and it's one of the few active pre-amps that I actually like. Looks funky with the cables coming out of the front front but it works GREAT. Great headphone amp as well. You can probably re-wire it to send the signal back to one of the RCA jack sets on the back now used for the tape moniter function. Cheap, cheap and did I say cheap. Check it out at Audio Advisor. You can always send it back to them if not happy. Good luck.

melos sha-1, ~$400 used; melos sha-gold/maestro, <$1k used - these are preamps w/what the industry generally recognizes as the best headfone amps out there. great preamps, too.