Help - Need Preamp under 5K for Class D amps

I guess I should add my 2 cents. I've just dealt with a small manufacturer AV123 whom I purchased some line arrays from. My experience was miserable. Emails and phone calls messages largly ignored, lost, unanswered, overall a frustrating experience. It wasn't worth it. The speakers we received are worth way more than we paid for them. The cabinets are worth more than we paid IMHO! They are drop dead beautiful. They might even sound great when I get a decent preamp. I see no downside if you can find these in stock. I know Mark Shifter tries like hell but I might imagine that there's too many folks to please. We were one of them!

Still, we were in suspense for 6 months wondering what and when we would have. We didn't need this type of drama at this stage of our lives. All it would have taken was a phone call.I agree with the last gentlemen that there are two sides to a story.

Now we wish for a product that performs just as our Classe's (amps) and our Def Tech's performed, flawlessly for 12 years. They should have blown up for as careless as I had become as an experimenter ! But excellent design and execution on their part ruled the day for us. To many other things screwing up or breaking in our busy lives to have to worry about our stereo equipment breaking. Maybe I'm just upset that our coffee maker is broken...

Sorry, off on a tangent - forgive me please.

I digress. Red Wine Audio has come out with the Isabella. On paper and review it looks like a fine preamp. Doesn't actually "look" all that fine but is said to perform steller. It's a battery powered unit that will perform with AC as well if I read it right. Has a DAC option which I don't really need and is built with a USB option (with DAC option) meaning, bring on those digital files. That in itself is intriguing. Who's heard of this, knows this preamp or is familiar with Red Wine Audio?

Where's the HT bypass? Is it so stupid to stack speaker cables coming from a multichannel amp and a two channel amp provided you NEVER send voltage from both sources? I had to ask so shoot me.

I think that was about 2 bucks worth in this economy.

The Truth mods are definitely on my radar. I thought however that the pre would give me the flexibility to cure my cable swapping issues when viewing home theatre.
Thanks!

I've heard a lot of good things about the Dodd. I thought about building an Audio Note pre as well as I love DIY.

I'm looking for a theatre bypass function. In the interest of keeping 2 channel and HT seperated, and needing a multichannel amp anyway, I could in theory simply switch speaker cable outputs in some manner. Trade-offs you know. Speaker switch VS HT bypass?

Hotbird - I do not own a preamp other than my Onkyo PR-885CP (something like that) pre-pro which doesn't cut the mustard for 2 channel. So I run direct from Transporter to Nuforce amps. Not an ideal configuration!

Cannot find info on the "dude" dudes. Is there a pic with some info?

That Audio Valve Eklipse looks very nice. Got kudo's from stereo times Mike Wright. Wonder if it has HT bypass. Funny that there's many pics of it's front panel but NONE of it's back panel that I could find.

Anyone here heard a lector?

I've been playing with our newly formed setup. LS-6's are sounding quite lovely. I can't get over just how beautiful the cabinetry is. Cabinets were worth the money I paid for these! Getting back to the pre I just listened to a Itlain made Lector paired with my Nuforces running to a pair of Usher Be718. Sounded quite nice.

I don't have an issue with my Nuforces. What I love about them first off is their lack of signature. They just seem to amplify sound. Last night I used our Onkyo 885 as a pre. In pure audio mode it didn't sound bad but after a while we missed the ambiance, detail and energy that we love without a pre. I know this isn't a audiophile qulaity piece but you get my message. I don't want to give up what I have in energy, I wish to add some timbral accuracy and control to the whole mix. Getting the truth mods to our TP doesn't solve our problem (people should have such problems :-| God are we blessed) although it is a possibly later on.

Another vote for AH. It seems many Nuforce owners like these. TRL "dude". Gotta check that out too as I heard mention of that pre before.

What about the Lamm LL2 used? One hell of an engineer..

Currently I don't have a preamp to listen to other than when I connect to my Onkyo which sucks the life out of my music. If I were to get off the AC grid I would go with Dodd which is a possibility cause if there's one thing I learned after all these years in this hobby, it's paying close attention to the AC end of things.

If there isn't so much as a pic of the "Dude" it's a hard sell with the wife unit and myself!

Still looking but many excellent recommendations. I like that Audio Eklipse unit (at least by looks and from what I read) as well as the Audio Horizon. What about BAT?

Audioforever – I’m feeling the Audio Eklipse as well. I have to factor in WAF and that unit is a beauty. Hell, I’m fortunate to have a converted audiophile wife. I think she’s crazier than I am. She wanted the LS9 line arrays which stand to the ceiling!

Not having any pics of the “Dude” and little information, I don’t know if I can go there. I like the Audio Horizon 2.1xx as well. Those can be optioned for the HT bypass and are well regarded on this forum.

I have little experience in tube gear. I owned and loved an AR LS15. I had borrowed back this unit and listened through my Nuforces some time ago and found it rolled off… the music. This was when I still used my Def Tech BP2000’s. I was surprised just how awful it sounded and it kind of worried me regarding choice of preamp’s. Now I have completely different speakers (line arrays) and many other upgrades and improvements. I know that I can tailor the sound through cables to a degree. I understand tubes will also affect the sonic quality of just about any pre to a point. So if we can find something reasonable and we’re willing to spend up to 5K (that’s a lot of cash in our world!) as I heard it often stated that the preamp is the heart of the system. I’m sure that can be argued about!

Many good points here. Now I need to check out that Jeff Roland designed Capri and the Cary.
Anybody with a pic of the Dude?
Thanks again for all the suggestions.