Ggavetti, take a look at my recent Gon review of the Audio Valve Eklipse preamp, which is in your budget range. In a past review, on the ASL's Flora preamp I discuss my auditioning of a Shindo Labs linestage that was ok, but nothing special in my system. The Eklipse is a world class preformer, beautifully built with German craftsmanship, and competes with virtually anything out their regardless of price. You might want to the Eklipse on your audition list.
Best preamp for and EAR890 / ESL57 rig
Hello folks, I own a EAR890 amplifier, which drives a pair of Piquet restored Quad ESL57 (that in turn sit on a pair of dipole Gradient woofers, driven by an Acurus250 amplifier). I am currently using a pretty good Klyne SK-6 preamp, but I was thinking to move to a tube preamplifier. What do you recommend? My instinct would be to try either the Shindo Aurieges (around $3K) or the new EAR 868 ($5K). Any recommendation? thanks. Giovanni