My Mark Levinson preamp dying - looking for new preamp, sound as good, wont break bank


Hi - When I bought my Mark Levinson I thought I was done with upgrading, but over time the capacitors in it failed (and I had a magician with a soldering gun replace the Chinese capacitors with good tantalum ones).  It sounded better than ever! That rescued the unit for about another 8 years, but it is failing again (volume knob not working, some inputs iffy, etc.)  So I figure within the year, I will need a new preamp. I no longer care about a phono section.   I have a Bryston 4b-SST amp driving Dunlavy SC-IV speakers (yes, more power than I need but I wanted to be prepared for whatever speaker I might get in the future as the Dunlavy's are big and heavy and I would like something more manageable, someday).  I don't want a tube preamp as I don't want to wait for tubes to warm up - hence solid state.  What do people like, say in the under $5k range? (or must I spend a bit more to get Mark Levinson quality sound?)
frije03
For less than $1K on the used market, you can pick up a Audio Alchemy DDP-1 Dac pre  and their PS 5 outboard power supply
What's a little warm up time out of your day and you can definitely improve your musical sound stage with a tube pre amp.You will also have the added bonus of fleshing out the sound of your Bryston which tends to be too linear.Just sayin.
Judging by our local pre-used marked it ought not be too hard to find an ML326S pre-amp?

It has all the wistles, hooters and bells, a great remote, is extremly flexible, like ML has it, and pretty robust, even bullet proof, class A, to boot.

Mine is now some 15 years old, it has ’no sound’, at all, more like the proverbial ’straight wire’ - but a fully balanced straight wire at that.

Phono modules can be added, very compact, I did, but no need, if you’re happy with your present phono-pre.

M. 🇿🇦
+1 on Pyramid Audio in Austin Texas for anything ML. They rebuilt my 20-year old Proceed HPA-2 to perfection!