Truly Balanced Cheaper Preamplifiers?


I recently came into possession of a truly balanced stereo amplifier. In order to get the best out of it, naturally I need to run fully balanced. New or used, tube or SS, preferably at the lower end of the $$$, can you give me examples of truly balanced preamplifiers? 
greg7
If you want tube, the Freya is likely the absolute best for the budget.  It can sound really excellent with some choice tubes.

For solid state, there was a suggestion for Gustard P26.  I think that would be the way to go.  On the P26, you can actually upgrade one op amp in each channel (since it's a socketed op amp).  Put in a Burson Vivid V6 or a Sonic Imagery and you have a discrete Class A analog stage!
Therefore, expensive cables aren’ts as important also.
Oh how I wish this were true!

I argue this with ignorant people on a regular basis. I can even hear the difference between 0.5 an 1.0 XLRs of the same mfg

I've made this point before on other threads but it bears repeating here: If the equipment used with the cables supports the balanced line standard (AES48), then the interconnect cables will not impose any important sonic artifact.


The proof of this is simple: if you've ever heard an RCA or Mercury recording from the late 1950s, the microphone signals of those recordings were passed through some very long (+100 feet) balanced line cables. This was before any exotic interconnect cable industry existed; quite literally the balanced line standard in use at the time **was** the exotic cable technology!


For some reason, the balanced standard is mostly ignored in high end audio. We made the world's first balanced line preamps for home audio and at the time (1989) it didn't occur to us to not support the standard. After all, if a method of making interconnect cables be absolutely sonically neutral and inexpensive, you'd think audiophiles would be all over that.


But almost right away, other manufacturers began making balanced line products also, and we saw that the standard wasn't being supported. Part of this was probably because to do it right you need an output transformer (or you do it the way we did it, but we have two patents on our technique, which is direct-coupled). I suspect that the marketing department thought that would be a hard sell or they didn't want the cost in the product. I don't know; I've never asked. But it appears that some manufacturers don't even know that there is a standard.


At any rate, if you don't support the standard, differences in cables will be audible, which isn't how its supposed to work.

One of the best tube preamps I have owned was the Aesthetix Calypso, which is fully balanced. Years ago, Paul McGowan of PS Audio claimed that his reference DAC at the time, the Perfect Wave, sounded best with no preamp in the chain and should be run amp-direct. He then changed his mind after he auditioned an Aesthetix Calypso, which became part of his reference system until PS Audio started making and selling its own tube preamps. I don’t see any used Calypsos for sale currently, but I would keep on the lookout for one. Years ago, I paid $2,200 for a Calypso, but have no idea what one would cost today.
@mcondon There is a calypso for sale in Canada. I considered it but was worried that if I didn't like it, it would be very hard to sell as its not a super popular brand. Gonna take another look.