Help me buy a magical pre-amp that doesn't exist

I'm looking for a pre-amp, to go along with my new Behringer A500, with quite specific requirements. So far, it seems that this magical pre-amp does not exist, mostly due to the first requirement

-Costs in line with the Behringer. I will be selling a Rotel RA-02 Integrated amp so I'll have a budget of about $300-500, give or take as I'm willing to throw in some other money too if needed, to work with.

-Good sound, obviously. Neutral, no hiss.

-Solid state. I tend to leave my amps on 24/7 so tubes are frowned upon for this reason.

-Remote control. My laziness demands it.

-Balanced outputs/(at least one) input. I would prefer to run completely balanced, since I'm going into a pro crossover to separate my speakers and bass bins, then to the A500.

-Reasonable cosmetics. I hate the 80ies look. This puts Linn gear I've seen in a bad light that fits pretty much every other requirement.

-MC phono stage! Ooh, I bet you guys all hate me now. There go 99% of the candidates.

-A 12v trigger would be nice too, but it's not a make-or-break feature.

So far, through research and recommendations I've come up with the following, in order of price:

Classe Thirty
Linn LK-1
NAD 116
Classe Five

Anybody know of others? Any thoughts between these four?

The NAD fits every requirement but might not sound as nice as the others. It's also a lot harder to find! Some suggestions or comments would be so greatly appreciated!