OK folks, what the best pre for under 10,000?

Gryphon, Sonata Allegro, oops $15,000. but magic nevertheless. Of course what's $5000, among audiophile friends? HA! True dual mono, with "banks" of smaller capacitors istead of a few large ones gives it lightning fast response. Gryphon truly has its finger on the real pulse of music. It is, magic.
For the people who claim that they don't need one,(a preamp) I humbly submit that they are rationalizing, or have not experienced the wonder of a truly great pre.
Having said that, connectors and other factors, such as matching, with the amp, are critical, as is everything in audio systems.
The First Sound is also wonderful at a steal of a price of $4000. Emmanuel is a little slower in getting products out, since he is backed up, but it is worth the wait.
Bargain, preamp? the Belles 21A is a killer when used with the Mullard tubes. Almost no personality; clean clear,dyanmic and just fun. Don't look for any syrup there though.
IMHO,
Larry

Before spending a lot of money on a preamp, consider replacing your amp. The Parasound A21 is a nice little amp, but it's out of place with the rest of your system. With $10k to spend, you could buy a good preamp for $3-4k (Blue Circle, GamuT and Pass are possibilities) and a pair of JC-1s. Good luck!

Brian

The Supratek Syrah (sp?). I have not heard this, but it seems many people are very high on this handmade, all tube unit made in Australia. It comes with or without high-gain phono and has optional Remote volume and balanced outs. It is very pretty, and some folks whose ears I trust are saying very good things about this line of tube stuff.
Jeffrey

Did I mention the First Sound Deluxe II for $3995.? It is dual mono, and wonderful. Hand made, copper lined chassis.
Go to the website, Firstsoundaudio.com and read the review, in which this pre is compared to Hoveland, Lamm, you name it.
For $4K its probably the best, at least in the minds of several Audiogon folks.
Larry

Yeah,(Essentialaudio) I've thought about that myself. I guess my thinking was, to get a system using balanced vs. single ended. I'm always willing to believe there's audio bargains out there and was hoping the A21 might be just that after I tried the balanced thing. Now I'm think about keeping the the A21 and getting something lower powered like a Pass Aleph for the top 2/3's of the spectrum. My speakers would undoubtably be better off bi_amped anyway and it would save a lot of time with the crossover. For anyone who's done it, 3 crossovers are a step beyond in difficulty.
I've heard great things about the JC1's, but I couldn't audition them because Denver, especially with this economy, does not cater to that level of high end, from what I've seen anyway. Funny considering we have Rowland to the south and Boulder to the north. I'm not going to waste someone's time at an "appointment only" shop when I can only afford their stuff at used prices. So if an of your guys are listening to this you can relax.
Even the local Levinson dealer only has one pair of 436 amps, and they weren't hooked up the last time I was there. On that subject, I once had a salesman accuse me of listening at his shop an buying online, not to my face ofcourse, but I could hear him in the next room and he meant for it to be that way, the coward. It really wasn't the case. That actually where I ended up buying my current pre which brings me full circle and now I'll stop this ramble. Hey, he was depressed, they were going out of business.