Beating a dead horse - Pre with Pass-Thru

Hi Sdcampbell,

Mainly, the reason for my desire to seek a balanced approach is simply curiosity. I've heard and read so many opinions on the subject - how balanced is better, etc... - that I now just want to hear for myself.

I've tried tweaks, changing gear, upgrading components, (a never ending hobby, I might add) - all to varying degrees of success and failure. And since going with an all balanced system is the only area I haven't explored, I figure, Why not?? Worst case scenario is, as you allude, that it doesn't make a difference... In that case, I simply switch over to the single ended inputs, which, I've found, will almost always be available to me, unless I buy a pre that is 100% balanced.

Hope that explains it.. :)

To everyone else, those are great suggestions. The pre's you recommend are new ones I hadn't considered. Thanks!

Late posting but the ARC Ref 2, MKII for a tube pre option.

Sonic Frontiers Line series have two sets of balanced inputs and HT passthrough. I haven't tried the passthrough on the balanced inputs, but the manuals are online.

I own a Levinson 380S. It (and similar Levinson models) features both two sets of balanced inputs (it is a true internally-balanced design) plus the ability to assign any input as a passthrough (note that this is not a totally passive direct mode, as the preamp does universally apply very high-quality buffering to all the inputs and outputs, but it will bypass all gain and control stages, and sounds exceedingly transparent so configured).

I have the Sonic Frontiers Line 1. It has the SSP pass through but it is only single ended and not balanced. It works well but I get feedback from my receiver unless I lift the ground on my pre. The SSP works well for me and I wouldn't be without it. Be aware that Sonic Frontiers is only available used now unless a dealer somewhere has some old stock. Used prices are very good and you can get service from Parts Connexion. These are actually the same people who were involved in Sonic Frontiers before Paradigm bought them out. They will also do mods on the SF products as good or better than the original Sonic Frotiers Special Edition (SE) upgrades. You can of course select any of the other fine product listed above. The SF pre's have two pair of balanced inputs and two pair each of balanced and single end outputs. A tape loop is included with the SSP loop. Four pairs of single end inputs. Also has phase invert and mono, both selectable from the funky remote.