Parasound JC2BP will probably eat your ML for lunch. You don’t mention what model you have currently so I’m going to go with it’s before the No.38. If you like your ML you’ll probably love the Parasound as possibly Curl either designed your ML or had a strong influence on it.
My Mark Levinson preamp dying - looking for new preamp, sound as good, wont break bank
Hi - When I bought my Mark Levinson I thought I was done with upgrading, but over time the capacitors in it failed (and I had a magician with a soldering gun replace the Chinese capacitors with good tantalum ones). It sounded better than ever! That rescued the unit for about another 8 years, but it is failing again (volume knob not working, some inputs iffy, etc.) So I figure within the year, I will need a new preamp. I no longer care about a phono section. I have a Bryston 4b-SST amp driving Dunlavy SC-IV speakers (yes, more power than I need but I wanted to be prepared for whatever speaker I might get in the future as the Dunlavy's are big and heavy and I would like something more manageable, someday). I don't want a tube preamp as I don't want to wait for tubes to warm up - hence solid state. What do people like, say in the under $5k range? (or must I spend a bit more to get Mark Levinson quality sound?)