Budget preamp with quality volume control

In short, I am looking for a budgetary preamp with quality volume control that either has relay switch stepped control or precise potentiometer for left-right channel match to curb the issue.

@lanx0003, The Wyred 4 Sound mPRE preamp priced at $1100 has both active and passive topology. The volume control is a switched resistor array (based on the $2000 Wyred 4 Sound STP-SE preamp) and it paired with my Clayton Audio M200 stereo amplifier, a full loom of 聖 Hijiri Nagomi interconnects the synergy is there in spades and my modest rig sings. At it’s $1100 price point it also comes with a remote.

Check it out: https://wyred4sound.com/products/mpre Here's a review from sixmoons.com:https://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/wyred8/1.html that will more completely explain the specs of the Wyred 4 Sound mPRE preamp.

@zlone is correct. The reasons, as shown in the "measurement" section, are (for Freya)

The active balanced output impedance was the same with or without the tube stage operating. It was close to 810 ohms at 1kHz and 20kHz but increased to 6900 ohms at 20Hz. The buffered unbalanced output impedance at 1kHz and 20kHz was inconsequentially higher than the specified 75 ohms, at 90 ohms. However, it rose to 3100 ohms at the bottom of the audioband. With the tube stage operating, the unbalanced output impedance was 3267 ohms at 20Hz and 1200 ohms at 1kHz and 20kHz.

Especially on the low ends from either output, the output impedances are much higher than the specified 75 ohm.  Frequency dependent impedance, interesting, needs to be watched for.  Lean something each day.  Thank you.

@tyray Thank you.  I also like what I see from this review. How do you like its DAC?  In particular, how are the soundstage width and depth?

https://positive-feedback.com/Issue72/wyred_mpre.htm

One night while glancing through the Wyred4Sound website, the proverbial "Duh" hit me like a hammer. Why not the mPre?

This is exactly what happened to me. I first wanted the Wyred 4 Sound STP-SE Stage 2 preamp. I didn’t even know the mPRE existed until about 2 years after trying to save up money for a used or new Wyred 4 Sound STP-SE Stage 2!

Funny you should ask about the dac even though my main way of playing music is old school needle dropping! Not streaming nor playing cd’s, I still wanted an inexpensive transport of the best quality sound and (low) price ratio I could find, I narrowed it down to the Audiolab 6000CDT transport. Do you see a recurring theme here? Keep in mind I have not run/burned in the dac as of yet but I do know it responds to what you have going into it. So the better quality of interconnects and transport it responds well to.

Sound stage, width, depth and holographics are there as well. It’s as if this little mighty mite is responding to the gear you connect it up to just like a higher priced preamp would.

The toslink connection to some may sound overly warm but I have separate Power Sound Audio (PSA) subwoofers and I can turn down the gain on them. But my cd transport connector of choice is the 聖HIJIRI Million HDG - RCA Digital cable. Again, what I’ve found is the mPRE does respond to what you put into it.

I think I’ve been lucky with selecting components with outstanding symmetry but I’ve also ’paid the upgrade price’ over the years for it too.

There’s one little thing I need to share with you here. I did splurge a bit on my most recent acquisition and that was a Puritan 156 power conditioner and after hooking everything up to it - Wow! I’m hearing things I didn’t even know were on the cd/record/vinyl! As we say here on audiogon, ’I hope this helps.’

That’s supposed to be outstanding synergy not ’outstanding symmetry’. ’Duh’.