Need a good preamp w remote

You can get a used Aesthetix Calypso in your price range. Line only. No Phono

You can get a new Don Sachs SP14 tube pre with all the upgrades for around $2500 new, and Don offers a return policy so you can try it in your system before fully committing. Best of luck.

www.dsachsconsulting.com

 Used Modwright LS100

I bought a factory rebuilt SWL 9.0 Line Stage from Dan Wright, with upgraded power supply, new tube board, and new MWS caps, and yes, it does have remote volume control.

It sounds incredibly good, and for $1400, was a bargain. Give him a call.

Regards,
Dan 

Love my LS100!

As we all know that unless you have a very large budget putting together a music system that meets your tastes and expectations involves optimizing the synergies of components.  That being said, I find that the Wyred 4 Sound STP-SE with Stage II mods is an excellent preamp which I found to be more neutral and revealing than preamps costing 3X the list price of this unit.  It is essentially a buffered passive linestage using a naked Vishay resistor ladder with a very high quality JFET buffer.  It has an opamp which kicks in above the zero gain setting and in my opinion produces a small degradation in sound quality.  If your amp has 26dB gain and your speakers have a reasonable sensitivity, i.e. 85dB or greater, than IMHO you would have a difficult time doing better for less - particularly if you buy one on the used market.  Good luck in your quest.