best transparent pre amp

In addition to the above recommendation, I know that a $49 passive preamp seems stupid, when you've auditioning multi $K preamps you mentioned.

But read these very educational words from the master himself Nelson Pass. Your system is perfectly suited for this.

"Nelson Pass,
We’ve got lots of gain in our electronics. More gain than some of us need or want. At least 10 db more.
Think of it this way: If you are running your volume control down around 9 o’clock, you are actually throwing away signal level so that a subsequent gain stage can make it back up.
Routinely DIYers opt to make themselves a “passive preamp” - just an input selector and a volume control.
What could be better? Hardly any noise or distortion added by these simple passive parts. No feedback, no worrying about what type of capacitors – just musical perfection.
And yet there are guys out there who don’t care for the result. “It sucks the life out of the music”, is a commonly heard refrain (really - I’m being serious here!). Maybe they are reacting psychologically to the need to turn the volume control up compared to an active preamp."

What do you have to loose, it's just $49

Cheers George

Extremely transparent pre-amp: Esoteric C02; very happy with this preamp in my system as it gives that transparency, top to bottom frequency accuracy, sound-staging, etc...and so much more. I believe there is one up here selling used from someone else as of at least this past Friday/Saturday....

I just purchased a Simaudio 740P preamp to drive my Pass X250.8 and it is very transparent.

I'm more impressed though with the separation and depth between the instruments. I was not really ready for the latter and it is amazing how live the music now sounds. I've had a Berkeley Alpha II DAC and tried that directly into my amp, but I still prefer the sound I have now with the preamp in the chain. In absolute terms I don't find the high price for the preamp worth it, but in audiophile terms based on what I've spent for the rest of my system, the preamp was definitely worth it.

I've also tried Wyred STPSE, Pass XP10, Hegel P20, and Mystere preamps in my system. I could definitely hear differences between them all; the Wyred and Hegel were excellent for their MSRP.

Good Luck in your search.

VTL 7.5 iii. Breathtakingly clear and natural sounding. Like a pure mountain spring in sunlight.

Neal

I just received the brand new battery powered solid state darTZeel NHB-18NS preamp. I owned the previous model for 9 years. it's astonishing how 'not in the way of the music' it is. and also the super low noise floor and amazing dynamics. the thing is alive.

very natural sounding with a harmonically rich and textured mid range and very transparent. ambience and nuance retrieval is off the charts.

combines the best of tubes, and the best of solid state......it sounds like music

easily the finest preamp I have heard, and includes a world class phono stage.