A good 2ch preamp?

Ih the $300 to $500 price range, if you want a good new preamp that pretty much means one of the passives. The names escape me but quite a few have been recommended here and someone will chime in. The Adcom GFP750 mentioned above is out of your price range, but the earlier GFP565 sells for $275-300 and is not bad, pretty good match for your amp and also has a decent phono stage if you want that option. Another very good option is a used Anthem Pre1L (no phono) for $400. You'll need to buy 4 tubes, probably another $80-100. The Anthem may give you a more holographic three dimensional image, but will not be as quiet as the Adcom. Expect some tube noise and a little transformer hum (audible close up - not while listening to music).

If you can stretch it a bit a used Rogue 66 will provide many years as a backbone to a 2 Channel set up.

Oh, a good choice new, or almost new, is the Monolithic Sound PA-1 line stage. I notice Underwoodwally has a couple on sale now.

Paul

I third the recomendation for the used Gfp-750.And mates nicely if you ver need power with the 5802 (300 watt) amp.The CD player means a true balanced signal path all the way through.Also can't remember the dodel number but NAD (118?) used has balanced signal path and can be mated with the 218THXamp @225 wpc.If you have the taste for it (like natural mids and can deal with softer bass and rollled off highs) saving up and dropiing $1500 on a CJ,VTL,Rogue etc intergrated amp gives most audiophile bang for buck.The VTL has 85 wpc and since tubes clip soft it's like 150 wpc versus a SS amp.Really cheap would be an old passive Adcom SLC control box if your amp is big enough and your sources have enough gain.But go into debt it's patriotic to keep the economy pumped up.

P.S another good choice would be a a CJ PV10 or 12 tube preamp.Will soften any harshness of a SS and give you the goods.PV10's can be had for $450-650 add a couple of hundred for the PV12.Pre-amps can give tht great tube sound but the tubes don't need to be biased and last 2to 3 times longer than power/output tubes of a power amp.