anyone has experience with pre-preamp?

In the distant past I had a Vendetta SCP-2B, which I understand differed from the C version principally in that it lacked a 47K ohm loading setting. It was, and to this day probably remains, one of the finest phono stages ever made--quiet, plenty of gain, overbuilt (a true dual mono design, with separate power supplies and power cords for each channel) and superbly designed. Others can fill you in on the technical aspects of it, I thought it sounded great. I used it with a Jadis JPL line stage; when I fell in love with the Jadis JP80, I sold the Vendetta and the JPL so I could afford it. I like the JP80's phono stage better, but remember that I'm a tubeaholic and a bit irrational as a result; I certainly cannot argue that the Vendetta is not quieter by far. If you can find one used it is a worthwhile purchase.

I use a Marshall Leach designed pre-preamp (battery powered) with Supex cartridge and it works very well. The schematics are available on the Web.) I also have a Dayton-Wright with remote power supply that hums like hell with an AT OC-9 cartridge. I posted a thread on this on the Tech talk forum.

I am using a borrowed pre preamp with a Van den Hul DDT-II special and it is very good.