Best Pre-amp under 5000

i recommend a melos ma333/music director. ya, it's tubed, but quite neutral. latest iterations had remote for volume & balance. i went to this from a linn kairn, & lost *none* of the kairn's excellent transparency, detail, & neutrality, but gained a much more 3-d presentation. the kairn, while possessing a wide soundstage & good imaging, was wery 2-d in its depth presentation.

if ewe must have solid-state, i'd look into electrocompaniet or ayre. while i have no direct experience w/either of these mfr's latest pre's, i have heard great things about the ayre, & i *do* use electro's amps, which i tink are great. i also used to use one of their 10+ year-old preamps (currently waiting to be installed in a second system), & it was also excellent - but not up to the melos, imho...

doug s.

Try the Bat vk50se. Used right around 5k. One of the best preamp out there, period.

I second the Bat vk50se. It is very good.

if you want to consdier a passive, placette or audio synthesis pro passion, both are remote, and both have balanced input/output capabalities, i have placette and i absolutely love it. the rest of my system is in the virtual systems if you want to see under the moniker vintgeguru, it should be toward the bottom.

jayson

I would suggest the cj LS17. It has a remote, built very well, and the sound is just plain musical. I've heard the PV10 and found it to be too tubey for my taste. The 17 has a lush sound and is much tighter overall than the 10. I don't know about the 12. A solid state person myself, I've been listening to my Classe dr6 for 8 years without a problem, but after auditioning the LS17, the Classe sounded so much more 'electronic'. Great value for the money. (I ordered one.)

Thanks for the advice all.