If you can find one on the used market, a Don Sachs 6SN7-based preamp should be a consideration.
They don’t come up for sale very often, however.
They don’t come up for sale very often, however.
Preamp under $2,000 used
I'd look at Audio Research SP-6a's, 6b's, and SP-8's. Have their caps and critical resistors upgraded to modern high quality ones, and be happy for a long, long time. This can be done for under $2000, and if you have or plan to add phono gear, these are an even greater bargain as the ARC phono preamps of this era were superb (although MM only). |
kalali+1 on the passive for neutrality and dynamics, this is why Wolf and I both love the Schitt Freya. As it’s everything, and got everything, passive, active tube, active solid state, xlr,se, remote and the best volume potentiometer you can get. all for $699 If you can’t find the perfect match with this, then something in the rest of your system has a big problem. Cheers George |
Georgehifi and I should at least get free t-shirts from Schiit…I haven't "auditioned" piles of preamps and the one the Freya replaced is a serious dual mono Kavent/Vincent beast, but I like tubes, and the Freya certainly "seems" to work really well. Interestingly, switching between the passive/FET/tube modes via the remote keeps everything honest in a way I like... |