Best Preamp for under $1750.00

Most manufacturers don't like to hear this, but the hands down winner in this category is the Sony TA-E90ES. It's
an older unit, but audiophile in every way. Extremely well built. Absolutely stone quiet at full volume. If you find one here or on eBay or AR.com, snatch it up. They are
marvelous units. I got a refurbished one for $750. Best
money I ever spent. Good luck !

Tom

I'd second the Blue Circle, you can get a used BC3 for about $1600 and you'll be hard-pressed to find better near that price point..if it's too lush for you, then look at Audio Research.

The best Preamp for $1750?...um....Answer: No Preamp at all!. get an amp with Volume control. One less elctronic device which could color the sound (and they all do).

kasboot, how wood i hook up my turntable, tuna, & cd w/no preamp? and, besides, when it comes to cd, i'd much rather have it go thru a pre then be run straight-in to an amp. my experience was that a great pre leveled the playing field between cd-players from $500 to $3k. and yes, the spendy player (which was *designed* to be run straight-in to an amp) still sounded better thru a pre...

ymmv, doug s.

Your post and another thread that is currently running got me thinking about the solid state Bel Canto preamp, the PRE-1, that was built to go along with the EVo 200.2. This is a very transparent, musical preamp that doesn't get in the way of the signal. It doesn't have a solid state or tube signature, really, at least not that I can hear. Very transparent, without being too lean or too lush. Sounds great with the Evo, but I imagine it would also do well with the Bryston. My friend was running it with the California Audio Labs CL-20 with great success. The slight warmth and fullness of the CAL gear seems to match well with the transparency of the Bel Canto solid state. I haven't checked recently, but there have been a couple of PRe-1 for sale here on Audiogon, so even though the unit is over your budget new ($2300, I think) you should be able to find one in your price range used. Good luck!!!