Van Alstine has 2 preamps that check off your boxes and are below your price range. Ava preamps have the Vision Q phono stage as an option. One version is solid state, the other is tube. I own the solid state version with the phono stage. It is great. Someday, it would be nice to hear the tube unit.
Preamp with Phono $3-5k range
I know this has been posted many times before but why not add another one to the list.
I'm looking for a new Preamp with a Phono stage or possibly separate Pre and Phono. I'd like to not limit myself to future upgrades throughout my system as well. I'd like the ability to use a MC cart in the future and maybe step up to Balanced I/Cs too.
My current system is as follows:
Sources:- Clearaudio Concept w/Concept MM Cart
- Oppo 105
- McIntosh MR7084 Tuner
Preamp:
- Parasound Halo P5
Aplifier:
- Carver TFM-35x fully refurbished and upgraded
Speakers:
- Wilson Audio Watt Puppy 8
Everything in my system I like but I know my Pre is the weak link and it's time for an upgrade. I've not listened to anything better in my system and I'm open to suggestions across both SS and Tube platforms.
Some other things to point out is I'm already using high quality Audioquest I/Cs, Power Cords, Speaker Cables and don't want to change those right now.