The Audio Alchemy DAC/Preamp & the seperate phono section could be an option. It would be a bit higher than 15 but audio adviser sells them at a good price. In time you could add the optional power supply which brings it to another level. If you want to go less, keep your eye out for a Jeff Rowland Consonance. They sold them with and without a phono section. It is a GREAT preamp & from what others say around here, has a good phono section as well. Neither of those options have tone controls though.
Preamp suggestions ? Remote, tone control, phono for less than 1.5.
I want to replace my vintage Sansui integrated with a pre / power combo. For the power amp I have my eyes set on the SCHIIT Vidar. This will need to drive 2 Dynaudio Special 40, reasonably hard to drive. Here's some desiderata:
- Budget between 1 and 1.5 K
- Analytical rather than warm sounding; ruling out tubes I guess
- Remote mandatory
- Tone control and phono input a BIG plus for me
- Used vs new not a prob
Schiit has got some nice preamp boxes, well withn my budget, but they don't have tone control and they don't have phono input. I know they have dedicated boxes for those and nicely reviewed for that matter but I really wouldn't want too many boxes / cables around.
I thought about the Benchmark DAC as a pre but the most you can get is one additional line input and no phono.
Any suggestion ?
Thanks a lot
Mark
- Budget between 1 and 1.5 K
- Analytical rather than warm sounding; ruling out tubes I guess
- Remote mandatory
- Tone control and phono input a BIG plus for me
- Used vs new not a prob
Schiit has got some nice preamp boxes, well withn my budget, but they don't have tone control and they don't have phono input. I know they have dedicated boxes for those and nicely reviewed for that matter but I really wouldn't want too many boxes / cables around.
I thought about the Benchmark DAC as a pre but the most you can get is one additional line input and no phono.
Any suggestion ?
Thanks a lot
Mark
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If I were in your situation, I'd get the Doge 8 and call it a day: http://www.doge.audio/products/doge-8-tube-preamplifier/doge-8-clarity-2017-edition/ Good luck, and Happy Listening! |