Used preamps under $500 better than Audiolab 8000C

how does rc 1090 stand up?

Thanks for all your responses...I will look into all 3 of these. Up to now I really haven't considered buying Rotel since all the new stuff is made in China (or so I've heard) but my favorite shop here in chicago is a Rotel dealer so I'm gonna demo the rc-1070 and 1090 this weekend hopefully.

The RC-1090 sounded identical in my system to the RC-1070. I don't use balanced connections. But the 1070 seemed like a better choice to me - it has no digital display circuitry to add noise to the signal. And the circuitry is more simple. The 1070 also offers tone adjustments (defeatable).

No tone controls but what about a passive pre-amp? I've been tempted to try passives before just never got around to it.

If you don't mind getting vintage tube gear, there are many choices under $500. Some of those out performs some $1500 to $5000 full functon preamps we owned in over five different setups.