What's your "diminishing returns" preamp choice?

Best bang for the buck I have acquired is a Halcro DM8. Bought it from The Music Room and it is in like new shape. I am not fond of tubes any more and prefer the unassuming and even keeleed presentation of this preamp. Kind of ugly though and takes up too much room in my audio rack.  

Absolute biggest bang for the buck is the Linear Tube Audio MZ2. You would have to spend a few thousand more to see improvement 

For me it is McIntosh. The preamp is perfectly transparent. I see no reason to move up from it with price vs diminishing returns in mind.

Everyone will post their personal purchases in a message post like this.


  Own several preamps!

McCormack LD-2
onkyo p-308B&K pro10-mc
Sanders sound preamp”

 to me the best sounding is still the Onkyo p-308, she is just outstanding, bass, features, looks, etc.
such a great pre”

2nd is the McCormack followed closely by the Sanders sound preamp. (McCormack and Sanders are darn close for being neutral and straight wire w gain.

 B&K pro10-mc  a nice neutral last (no slouch at all!)
very good pre,  needs a service and recap,bought new in early mid-90s’
used. A lot.
needs some nice Teflon caps and a break in!

check the Onkyo p-308, Ebay has em once in a while, worth the buy, and sending in for a upgrade and recap. Yes, that good!

 Sanders sound pre is also a straight wire w gain, the cleanest and purest pre I’ve owned, 

 trial and error, try many, choose 1 or 2.
 I like to have a backup pre, and amp just in case”

enjoy the hunt.

@gmercer 

 mcintosh is amazingly pure, and damn near flawless.     Never owned, but hundreds hours of auditions.
 They are that good.
if you can swing, afford a good Mac pre, jump fast.

 Or try a couple different ones.

 It’s fun trying diff components and their signature sound, with your existing setup.

 Took me years to acquire what I have now.
30+ years 

If you can find one, the Ayre K-5xeMP is an amazing preamp for the money.  New it was $3500 to $4350 depending in the year but was brilliant.  You should be able to pick up a used unit in the $1800 to $2200 range depending on condition.  

I regret selling mine simply because it was such an amazing unit for the money.  I have added two units to my system since it left (PS Audio BHK and Art Audio Conductor) and they are both better but are quite a bit more expensive and the Ayre deliver 95% of the quality of the PS Audio and 90% of the quality of the Art Audio.  

Ok, so I still gauge diminishing returns against a venerable preamp I bought in the early 80's, the DB Systems 1b/2a/4b.  I've had it updated twice.  Other than a brief stint with tubes, it's my reference preamp.  The only reason I'm not using it right now is it doesn't have some of the features of the newer preamps.  I think I paid something like $800 in 1982 money for it.

I had a Thor TA-1000 MKII preamp that retailed new for around $11K. Having tried a number of different preamps over the years, I genuinely thought that the Thor was at the line of diminishing returns, and that it wasn't really necessary, sensible, or practical, to spend more.
That was until I heard the Allnic L-5000 DHT, which I now own. I didn't think there was THAT much more performance to be had from a tube linestage, but I was mistaken. Yes, the Allnic comes at a much higher price, but it's one of those rare pieces that make me think it was money well spent.
I'm curious to hear an Atma-Sphere pre and also a BAT at some point in the future. Perhaps the line can be nudged a little further still!

would be interesting to have a 'quietest' contest and then a 'musicality' contest between the benchmark and an ayre k5xe mp

Very good recommendations above but some say that the preamp colors the sound. But how do we know that the power amp don't color the sound as well since the signal has to go through different circuits there.

But how do we know that the power amp don't color the sound as well since the signal has to go through different circuits there.

Simple: It does.