Please recommend preamp

The Audible Illusions 3A is priced used at about $1000-1200.  It has a very good phono stage in addition to all the inputs you desire.  It is a tube preamp with excellent definition.  I used an Audible Illusions 2D for 20 years with no troubles.  Did replace the 4 tubes twice in that time.  I have a AI 3A with the John Curl phono circuit that plays low output moving coil cartridges.  The 2D does not have enough output to play low output cartridges.  The Audible Illusions 2D preamp is the one component I didn't change through the years because I loved the sound of my system with it in there.  To beat the sound of the 3A in my system, I had to go to the TRL DUDE which is a $6000 preamp without a phono section.  The DUDE is a remarkable sounding preamp and would hold its own with much higher priced preamps.  At $1000, the AI  3A is unbeatable.  The AI preamps sound excellent through all your sources.

I am not familiar with your amp. I agree that the AI 3a is an excellent pre however has output impedance of 1600 ohms. May not be suitable for all amplifiers, those with low input impedance.  Are you looking for tube or solid state? I would suggest that you take a look at the preamp offerings here on AG, do an online search for additional info, make a short list of those that interest, and get back to us. Good luck in your search. 

Mesch makes an excellent point. Dorkwad has recommended a very nice product, that is in your price range, but unfortunately I don’t think it would be a good match for your amp. As is often the case with tube preamps its measured output impedance of around 1800 ohms (unbalanced only) is much too high to be a good match for the input impedance of your amp (10K unbalanced, 20K balanced). And I note that the manual for your amp recommends that it be used with a preamp having an output impedance of 600 ohms or less. Also, its gain is probably too high to be optimal for use with your very sensitive and very high powered amp, especially when playing CD’s. Gain that is too high in relation to the sensitivity and power capability of the amp (with the efficiency of the speakers also being a relevant factor, that apparently being moderate at 89 db/1W/1m for the L150A) would force you to use the volume control too close to the bottom of its range. Finally, although your amp can accept unbalanced inputs in certain ways, it does not provide RCA input connectors, and it appears to have been designed with the expectation that it would be likely to be driven with balanced signals.

IMO your chances of success would be greatest if you were to choose a solid state preamp providing both unbalanced (RCA) and balanced (XLR) outputs. Some of the older Classe preamps such as the CP-50 and CP-60, with the optional built-in phono stage, may be findable in your price range or for not much more, and should be fine choices. Some of the lesser models in that range, though, such as the CP-45 and perhaps the CP-30 and CP-35, may have line-stage gains that are somewhat higher than would be optimal for use with your amp.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

Thank you so much, dorkwad, mesch, and almarg for your help. There's a solid state Nakamichi CA-7A on ebay. It includes the spec sheet, which is hard for me to read (and understand!), but I think it says:

Input Sensitivity/Impedence
   Phono MC   (36 dB Gain) 40 <symbol> V/100 ohms
                       (30 dB Gain) 80 <symbol> V/100 ohms
                       (24 dB Gain ) 160 <symbol> V/100 ohms
  Phono MM                           2.5  mV/50 Kohms
  Tuner/CD/aux/tape            150  mV/12.5 Kohms
  

Output level/impedence
    Pre Out 2 V/1 kohms
    Rec Out 150 mV/200 ohms

There's a lot more on there if you need something else.

Would this work?

Rick