My Mark Levinson preamp dying - looking for new preamp, sound as good, wont break bank


Hi - When I bought my Mark Levinson I thought I was done with upgrading, but over time the capacitors in it failed (and I had a magician with a soldering gun replace the Chinese capacitors with good tantalum ones).  It sounded better than ever! That rescued the unit for about another 8 years, but it is failing again (volume knob not working, some inputs iffy, etc.)  So I figure within the year, I will need a new preamp. I no longer care about a phono section.   I have a Bryston 4b-SST amp driving Dunlavy SC-IV speakers (yes, more power than I need but I wanted to be prepared for whatever speaker I might get in the future as the Dunlavy's are big and heavy and I would like something more manageable, someday).  I don't want a tube preamp as I don't want to wait for tubes to warm up - hence solid state.  What do people like, say in the under $5k range? (or must I spend a bit more to get Mark Levinson quality sound?)
frije03
Hard to answer.  ML stuff (from the old days) was terrible.  If yours "sounded" good to you, I would check out other pre-amps that have no "sound" and see what you have been missing.

If ML has improved its products (the parts were always good, the reproduction was horrible), then try a rebuild, I guess.

Cheers!
Pyramid Audio in Austin Texas can rebuild it.  They are certified and have extensive knowledge in all things ML.

No affiliation,  I'm only a satisfied customer. 

Good luck with what you decide, 
Jose
Sanders sound

”The Preamp”

Best straight wire with gain you will ever not hear.
beware, she is very revealing and honest.

 Warranty is not to shabby either,.....look it up at Sanderssoundsystems.  
For less than $1K on the used market, you can pick up a Audio Alchemy DDP-1 Dac pre  and their PS 5 outboard power supply
What's a little warm up time out of your day and you can definitely improve your musical sound stage with a tube pre amp.You will also have the added bonus of fleshing out the sound of your Bryston which tends to be too linear.Just sayin.