Best solid state pre-amp below US $ 10.000,00 ??

Dgad - interesting comments. As I ONLY had an AA as a source (i.e., no vinyl, tape or tuner), i was not able to use the AA as a preamp only. I will add that the Nagra is AS TRANSPARENT as direct - and by that I mean ALL the informaition on the disk gets through, unblemished. If anything i seemed to hear MORE information with the Nagra in the chain than when it ran direct. AND AND AND, the information has better harmonic resolution, better paplability and better decay....

I would agree with you wholeheartedly that the Audio Note M5, First Sound, Callisto Signature, BAT 31SE, and CAT sig mk3 (I had ALL of these in my system, so im talking about actual experience) were LESS transparent than direct, though to varying degrees and with varying degrees of added warmth, palpability, depth, bass slam and so on.

See my system page - this is hunt for transparency and nneutrality are exactly what led me to buy the Nagra - compared to every other preamp i tried, it was easily the most transparent, yet still provided the body, depth (the 'tube thing' you refer to) to the music which was missing direct... I did not expect this to be the case, as I only audiotioned it on a whim, but I was floored.

Of course adding a Reimyo over the AA, and isoclean power gear helped this as well, but I heard the Nagra with the AA (before the Reimyo and isoclean stuff), and without a doubt, the same observations applied. the Nagra PL-l is without a doubty the most transparent preamp I have ever heard.

I am sure there are other that would be better, but for my priorities, so far, the Nagra is the CAT's meow - no pun intended.

grant you may be correct, but also realize that the Audio Aero does have a built in anal;og outpput stage, which if you are using ity ve a stand alone preamp, it clearly inferior. basically it boils down to whether the built in preamp section of that particular CDp is comparable to allowing it to run at a 'fixed' volume and allowing a real outbpard preamp do the honor of preamping and volume controlling. So it's not really as simple as preamp vs no preamp....

moreover, many have remarked that the Audio aero built in preamp pretty much stinks outside of -9db to -6dB (referring to its volume display when used as a preamp).