best bang for the buck tube preamp?

thanks for all the input everyone. im kinda leaning toward the Mapletree Audio Line 2A SE. good or bad choice?

I recently went through a search for a reasonably priced tube preamp.
Ended up getting an Audio Mirror PP1.
Audio Mirror also makes a linestage only (T61)
that is a little above your pricerange new, but gets rave reviews.

Also, this looks interesting:

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?preatube&1169122199

I have no affiliation with this ad.

Good Luck.

What other components do you have? particularly your amp? The 2A has a low output impedance so it shouldn't be hard to match with an amp. Your amp would need an input impedance of lower than 4.5K ohms for their to be any problems. Has adjustable gain which is good and makes it flexible for amp matching. Separate power supply which is good. Barring some unforseen reason not to choose the 2A, I think its a great choice. I think you will really like it for a long time to come.