Budget preamp recommendation...besides Schiit.


What are some other budget friendly preamps besides Schiit, the king of budget electronics? With similar quality of build and sound, both solid state or tube options would be welcome. 

Thanks,

Mike

128x128mjcmt

Cheap killer preamp? The Chinese Weiliang-made MBL 6010d clone is just that. Just be shure to give it some good sounding op-amps. 

BB OPA627 single op-amps + 4xTexas Instruments LME49720 dual op-amps makes this into a balanced giant-killer. Extremely open and dynamic, wery low noise. It dissapears like a good pre should do and to a price..

 

 I have 2 old but nice Phase Linear pre-amps. However I want a remote and the Emotiva pre-amp for $500 looks ok to me. A friend of mine has Emotiva amps and Gallo surround system in his acoustically treated room - sounds fantastic. 

@tunehead @kota1 

I agree with the Parasound 200 option. I ran the small form factor Parasound ZPre3 in my main rig for a while and was pretty impressed. For the money, I think hard to beat, and the 200 should be a step-up to that, but didn’t really need the options it provided over the ZPre. It’s now in my bedroom system after investing in my Belles Aria Signature Pre at about 7x the cost.

You already have more options that you can sift through, but let me add a vote for the Rogue RP1. With used examples under $1k, it's a truly fantastic preamp for the money. 

And if your budget would be happier at half of that amount, find a used Freya S. Highly transparent, choice of gain including passive, fully balanced if that's important. Can't imagine getting more for your money.