Need help with preamp purchase

Krell has a few SS balanced pre's

BAT VK-51SE....sorry, but you can't really do any better if you love music.....IMHO.

I highly recommend the Ayre K-1XE.
It has 3 balanced and 3 single ended inputs.
It has an optional remote.
(Note the remote only controls volume and mute, but that works fine for me.)
It has optional phono boards that are very, very good.
Check the reviews and you will find it is an excellent choice.

New the price exceeds your price range, but used, it comes in a bit below. (I believe Jtinn has a fully loaded K-1XE, with remote and phono boards for sale for $4,900.)

Good Luck in your search.

Chadaudio816, I would recommend you put on your audition list the Placette dual active line stage. It retails for $4500.00, but you can ask Guy Hammel, designer/owner of Placette, to build you one with balanced connections for a slight increase in price. My Placette replaced a ML-32 reference which cost $10000.00 more. I had auditioned over six pre-amps before I decided on the Placette and find it to be a wonderful linestage that brought my whole system to another sonic level of enjoyment.

B/c of the low input impendance of the ICE modules, there may be compatability issues w/ a passive preamp.