Agree very strongly re: ARC SP-9. Despite an acute case of upgrade fever for the rest of my equipment, my SP-9 stayed in my system nearly forever, and only got removed in favor of a much more expensive unit. ARC is a standup kind of company, too, and is far more likely to be in existence this time next year than much of its competition.
preamp/system help
i am recently back into hifi again. my new system (bought used from audiongon and am very happy with transactions) consists of just 2 hafler 9180s biamping NHT 2.5is being run straight off of my cal 15. having only 1k left to spend what would be my best uprade. preamp? tube? ss? there are so many in this price range. AR; sonic frontiers; morrison; vanderstine; cj; wow......help. if something else would help my system more than a preamp please let me know. i do still have my NAD 3020 that could function as a preamp. thanks!