Under $10k budget Preamp suggestion, please.

Tvad and Almarg, do you think one of Ralph's pre amps would work for him being a fully balanced design?

I have no relevant listening experience upon which to base an opinion about how well the Atmasphere preamps would match up sonically with the rest of the op's system. But in terms of design characteristics, specs, and price the MP-3 certainly seems well worth considering.

Its 200kHz bandwidth is somewhat wider than the 100kHz I arbitrarily mentioned, but still seems well within reason relative to the issue I raised.

The MP-1 has a specified bandwidth of 400kHz, but in any event is outside the op's price range unless he purchases it used.

I second Tvad's comments, also.

Best regards,
-- Al

blue Circle BC3000 MKII with GZPZ upgraded power supply. I believe retail is $11K+, but there is a nice one available here on the 'gon.

My unsatisfying tube preamp...not that I dislike tube but I have tube system in my bedroom so I want to setup solid state system for this time. And I skipped DMC-30 for future upgrades of poweramp.

I may switch to something else at some points of time ahead. But yes, if I were to consider tube preamp for next ones, I'd like to try either First Sound or BAT.

For frequency range, I prefer wider bandwidth since Rockport seems to like it that way. I maybe wrong though.

Regards,
Windows X

Hey Windowsx,

Well, since you wrote "I personally prefer fully balanced solid state preamps ...", I can recommend either a new Ayre K-5xe-mp preamp, or if you wish to get slightly better sonics, a used Ayre K-1xe preamp. (The K-1xe has the added benefit of an excellent, albeit optional, set of phono boards. These phono boards are near reference quality, IMHO, and a major reason why I bought the K-1xe.)

The build quality of Ayre products are top notch, and the sonics are fantastic. (Read any of the reviews of either preamp, and you'll be impressed, especially by the reviews of the K-1xe.)

The Both Ayre preamps have remote controls, albeit while the K-5xe-mp has a full function remote, the K-1xe has a fairly basic one, that only controls the volume and muting.

A couple of caveats:

1. I own the K-1xe myself, (and have for about 6 years).
So, take my recommendation with however many grains of salt you like!

2. The 1-series of equipment, including the K-1xe preamp has just recently, (as in the past month), been discontinued by Ayre. (So this means the prices will probably start coming down.) Used, they tend to go for around $3-4K, depending on whether they have the phono boards, and which version it is.

3. Ayre products are known to sound better via balanced connections than via single ended connections. So if you do use them, make sure that your primary sources do use balanced outputs. (The K-1xe has six inputs, 3 balanced and 3 single ended, and I use all six of them, with my primary ones, (phono, CD and SACD), being connected via XLR cables.)

Good Luck in your search.