I am looking for a solid state preamp to help speed up my system without sounding too bright. I have tried the conrad johnson pfr and loved the sound but couldn't deal with the volume control, 4 steps from zero was ear bleeding. Is anybody happy with their ss pre.
I'm happy with my Classe CP-60 w/ MM/MC phono stage. It also has a surround passthrough for my HT. List was $4200, I believe $3700 w/o phono. You can find them for less than $2K used. Good luck.
I am very happy with my Adcom GFP-750 preamp. It is the preamp for people that don't like preamps they tell me. Balanced with passive and active stage. and you can pick one up well under your price range
My klyne sk-6 pre is actually my favourite component. The sound is wonderful and it has all the facilities I need, including adjustable gain (no remote, but who cares?!). It is a little old (late eighties, early nineties I think) and for $2000 you might find the newer system six preamps (used). Only thing is that I rarely see them on the used market. Good luck with the search.
Being a McIntosh fan, I should maybe suggest you look into one of the McIntosh preamps. Great build quality - and very decent level control - both manually and with the remote.If you are only using two channel audio, you might look into the C-15 or C-712 preamps. Both have RCA and balanced outputs, and can be had new or used for well under $2K.
Bullwinkle's suggestion of a Klyne is rock solid. Most of the Klyne gear is well above the other brands mentioned here. You won't see too many of them used for two reasons:
1) There aren't that many built as these are all hand built by the designer himself. As such, they fall into the "labor of love" / "i did the best i could possibly do" category
2) The people that have them aren't parting with them
Those two statements alone should tell you what you need to know about Klyne gear. Sean >
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