Best balanced linestage/preamp for $4000 or less ???

My dream for several years was to get a Parasound JC 2, but @ 4K it is out of my foreseeable budget. I was reading a passive preamp thread, which moved me to use the XLR outs from my Oppo 105 direct to my amps. fortunately, no impedance issues and wow, the noise floor dropped off a cliff. The only negative is any volume lower han full on seems to cause bit loss, BUT, now I am exploring passive pres. I went through a bunch of them over a decade ago, but like everything else, the tech has improved. 

If I had $2700 I would buy the Troubador Passive preamp, It appears to be SOTA , but not in my current budget, so I found a Hattor passive on AudioGon and swooped it up.

My hope is by plugging the 105 into it, and opening th 105 volume control,l wide open and use the passive pre VC  to better control volume. Hope to have it by Saturday, then a few days to acquaint myself with its functions and listen to some music

Oem_wheels: Sounds like u made up your mind. Wanted to edit my previous post. The Calypso does not have the demagnetizer. That's my Rhea that does. Very kind of everyone to not point out my error. The Calypso does have tape monitor rca outputs for your sub. I use a remote controlled preamp for sub volume control. I've seen the Calypso for sale on this site for around $2200. U can do some tune rolling to adjust your sound. 

what a difference 2 weeks makes. 

I am in the process of reacquainting myself with newest passives

Wish i could afford the best Tortuga ($2700), which appears to be all anyone could want in a preamp. Had I investigated them further I would have gotten one of their ~ $1000 models, as I purchased a Hattor XLR from AGon customer. That said I am excited to receive it, hopefully by Friday

handyman, you are right.. and so is tweak1 about 2 weeks make a difference..  After taking in all the suggestions  and read the reviews , made phone calls , etc...  I bought the Parasound JC2-BP.. I know, I'm sorry.. I wanted tube..  The tube stuff that seemed to fit the bill of what I wanted it to do was out of my price range.. And some that seemed reachable there was question marks, either in the multiple reviews or when I called them to talk to them directly.. Example, one of the first question is "will this be able to drive my 100kohm amp and a 30kohm sub at the same time ? "  I'd get a pause before the answer and they all said yes.. But to me it sounded like " yes, but... "  It seems as though I'm the only one trying a add a sub to the system the way I want to do it....  Anyway I mentioned the Wyred4Sound STP-SE2.. I called them and without hesitation they said it can be done.. So it swung me to rethink about solid state.. And there's 2 right off the bat that was in my price range.. STP-SE2 and the JC2-BP..  2 phone calls later I pulled the trigger on the JC …  I want to thank everyone for their help.. I hope nobody is pissed at me.. I learned a lot.. Now I'll be looking for a new smaller musical sub that's easy to drive.. 

My Freya is quiet even with the stock tubes (I looked pretty hard for the much feared microphony in those...none was to be found, and no hum or hiss in my well sorted rig), and they now offer new Tung Sols as a factory option as well as the SS tube substitues that, to me anyway, make no sense...some have whined about tube microphonics with these but I apparently dodged that bullet...I'm using NOS Sylvania "Chrome domes" now but the Tung Sols were fine. The Freya is simply a great sounding preamp (I use it with a Dennis Had SEP) that serves to shame many others out there at multiples its cost, with 3 modes for listening, balanced ins and outs, remote, and that silly price.