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Best preamps under $800

I need advice and suggestions. I've been living with a less than ideal set up for the past few months and it needs to be changed. I'm using the preamp section of a receiver to drive a Parasound amp. Speakers are Dahlquist DQ-30. The amp made an incredible difference! I never knew what I was missing. It's time to get rid of the receiver. I don't want to spend more than $800 on a preamp. The only requirement I have is a remote control. I don't need a phono section. I have that covered with a Musical Fidelity X-LPS. I've been looking at Musical Fidelity pre's A3CR and A3.2CR. They make great products that are afffordable. I considered the MAD Line 2A, but the lack of a remote is an issue. I want the convenience of switching sources and volume control. What other preamps should I be looking for? Are there any issues with matching a SS amp with a tube pre? Thanks in advance!
mingles
horseface's avatar
horseface
222 posts
 
Most significant improvement I have made in my system was to go with a tube linestage and a SS power amp ... your half way there.

AES, TAD, Rogue and I really like the Cary stuff ... any one of them will no doubt make a huge improvement. Does Audio Research make anything with a remote? I have seen many deals in your price range.

I'm running a Modwright SWL 9.0 SE and life has never been better; even food tastes better! Boss asks if I've lost weight ... (grin)

Get out your CD collection because it was like getting everything in my collection remastered.

The Horse

X
shersta
140 posts
 
I agree with Horseface that a tube pre is the way to go. You could get a sonic frontiers line 1 for less than your budget. Comes with neat remote and is highly recommended.
pcs
109 posts
 
I had both a MF A3cr and 3.2cr. They are great values and I think they are very tough to beat. They have a built in phono that is close to your MF XLPS, so you could sell that and save some money. If you want to go tube, Conrad-Johnson pre's are very good. The entry level PV-10b does not include remote however.

Paul
noble100's avatar
noble100
1,093 posts
 
I'm sold on the tube preamp with ss amp concept, too. Music just sounds sweeter and more enjoyable through a tubed preamp without any loss of details. Not to say that you can't get this sound from a very good ss preamp but, in my experience, they're hard to find and very expensive.
There's a general rule that states the input impedance of the amp should be roughly 10 times the output impedance of the preamp to be a good match. For example, my preamp's output impedance is 200 ohms and my amp's input impedance is 22,000 ohms and they work well together (200x10=20,000, which is close to 22,000).
There are plenty of good tubed preamp products out there: CJ, Rogue, Cary, VTL, Modwright, BAT, ARC TAD, etc are some more affordable ones....checkout the tubed preamps here for sale. Good luck.
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