Suggestions on a balanced preamp?

My electronics are currently 60 feet from my speakers (as measured by speaker cable length). I was thinking of getting a balanced preamp (a Linn2250), sticking it between the speakers, and running balanced lines from the preamp->amp.

Currently I have an onkyo integrated home theater (fairly new, $1000ish retail, don't know which one) HD reciever with RCA out. I also have vandersteen quatros and linn preamp/amp with RCA connections. I was thinking of getting a preamp with RCA in and balanced outputs and running the HD reciever into an AUX input of the preamp and balanced from preamp to amp.

When playing CDs, I would just go CD->pre->amp and not include the HD receiver.

First, does all that sound reasonable?

Second, is there a reasonably priced (1-1.5k) preamp that would work, that includes a remote for volume? I suppose if it didn't include a remote, I could run the CD->HD receiver->pre->amp but that seems like it wouldn't be as optimal, especially because I have a cheapish integrated HD receiver. I figure the HD standards keep evolving so better to spend the money on quality amps/preamps that I keep forever.

Third, is there some collective wisdom that would steer me in a different direction?

Thanks for reading this far,

- Sprangle