best pre -amp under 4000$

Thanks for your help Tvad and Grannying. I honestly prefer the sound of the Mac over the Bryston. Its warmer and smoother.
Ok Tvad here is a question for you. If i was to stay with my Mca 50 for time being and wanted to match up a 2 chanel preamp with it wat would you recomend. Here is my delema that got me started on this journy, a mth ago i bought a bryston 4b sst and thought it would give me a better punch out of my winds. But the issue was not there. My buddy brought over his 2 channel preamp and BooM! the music was so much louder played on his preamp then my AVM 30. I have now bypassed all my processing and running direct on my digital playbacks, but stil not as loud as my friends preamp. Thus the reason why i was looking for a new preamp.

Yes,at that price theres some great stuff available,especially now.Had a 4BST with a Counterpoint,great combo.Seems the Bryston amps go well with most any tube/hybrid pre.....hopefully you can try before you buy,but I feel its hard to make a mistake with a Mac or Bryston and a good pre,good luck,Bob

Maverick_spd, I don't have a recommendation for you because it doesn't
appear to me that you're settled on an amp, and to suggest a preamp to use
with an amp that you may replace shortly would run counter to my earlier
advice.

I will say that a 4B SST should have no problem driving the Totem speakers,
so since you mention the sound was louder with your friend's preamp, then
perhaps your friend's preamp has more gain than the AVM 30. What
preamp did he bring?