seeking recommendations for a preamp


I've been lurking a while, but this is my first post. I will appreciate any advice given, and thank you for reading this.

My Kenwood C2 bit the dust. I have lost the right channel, and the input selector is also going out. I'm looking to replace it, and upgrade quite a bit. The wife has given me a $2500 budget, new or used is ok. I listen to Vinyl a lot, as well as my echo dot which is also plugged into my preamp with a headphone to RCA adapter. I'll list my other equipment now.

Completely rebuilt Altec A7-500 with all new parts from GPA
JBL L200s
Kenwood M1D amplifier
Homebrew rebuilt Monoblocks from Zenith consoles with EL84/6BQ5
Yamaha EQ
Thorens TD 318 with an Ortofon cart. Unsure which one as I am at work
SVS PB16 ultra

The room is 16 wide by 20 deep. I primarily listen to the Altecs and tube amps with the SVS sub taking up the slack in the bass from the A7s. Sometimes I listen to the JBLs driven by the Kenwood M1D. I notice that the echo dot sounds a lot better than my turntable, so I know I must be needing a better phono stage. I've tried swapping out turntables with a couple of Dual 1229s with Shure M97XE carts that Bill at fixmydual has gone through thoroughly so It's not isolated to my Thorens. I guess I' surprised that the $30 Echo Dot sounds so much better.  

I admit I don't have the best cables, and will upgrade those as I can. I feel like the preamp is the heart of the system so I want to make a good choice. I love Macintosh, based purely off emotion, but don't know if it's the best choice for my situation. I do not have a local shop to audition, and none of my friends are into audio. What preamps should I be looking at ??
128x128adrianleewelch
Those look great but I’m not up to building one myself. I’m able to solder but not test or diagnose. I would not know if it was unsafe until my house caught fire !! I’d definitely want it built for me 
If buying new:
Benchmark LA 4
Schiit Freya S
Schiit Freya +
If buying used:
The above plus:
Pass Labs
possibly Bryston
Perhps PrimaLuna as mentioned above. 
Dynaco made good stuff.  I have a rebuilt and upgraded Stereo 120, and I like it a lot.  My preamp is a PS Audio Stellar Gain Cell DAC... pretty decent DAC too.
Used parasound jc2bp. Check out Atkinson’s review in Stereophile. He usually does not gush.
Unfortunately it doesn’t come with a phono section but an Aesthetix Calypso is in your budget and stands right up there in sound quality.