Cary Preamps

Your on the right track, and perhaps Bob had his a little too close to the speakers, whom can say. Maybe he had a bad one.

The Cary SLP98 is excellent, so is the VTL 5.5 one here today for I think 2200 with lots of toobs.

Also if you can find a BAT toob unit, I like those. An older VAC is nice, aw heck, so many toobs, so little time.

jeff

Many of the great tube component manufacturers produce entry level preamps that share some of the same components and design ideas that their higher priced preamps have. Entry level preamps from high end manufacturers may be the best bang for your buck value in High End Audio. Some suggestions in your price range would be a BAT VK3i(in my opinion you cannot go wrong with a BAT tube preamp), various Audio Research preamps (another no-brainer, and various Conrad-Johnson preamps (another no-brainer).

That being said, Audible Illusions 3A preamps which have always been considered amazing values are, for some reason, extremely inexpensive on the used audio market. If you can pick one up for under $1000 and then do some tube rolling to suit your musical taste, mine runs toward warm sounding tubes, then your cousin will only have good things to say about you during family reunions.

Regards,
Drew

I second the SLP-98. I just bought one and have had no problems with it. I own a few Cary components and find them to be high quality. The suggestion for AES is a good one. Also, these are rare, but the N.E.W. P-3 is a consideration. I traded mine in to a dealer when I bought the SLP-98, so I know where one exists if you're interested. It would probably cost less than $500. Cary built the P-3 for N.E.W. (a company now defunct) which resembles an AES DJH and Cary SLP-50. According to a conversation I had with Dennis Had, he got a lot of mileage out of that preamp design. For $150 Cary will upgrade the unit to accept 6CG7 tubes. According to Dennis this will make the preamp scream. I owned the preamp for several years and it was very reliable and sounded great. Original price on it was $1650 (circa 1997) so it was no slouch.

I'd consider some of the other Cary preamps as well. The SLP-88 seems to be in your price range and is the predecessor to the SLP-94 and SLP-98. A couple on here now.

Good luck with the search.

Linnlp12,

What brand of teflon caps did you install? Also, what tubes are you using?

A nice preamp in your price range is the Cary SLP50A. I use one I purchased on Audiogon with the Jenson copper/oil caps and remote. Add RCA 6CG7 tubes. Very nice IMHO. Under $700.00. The Agon member I purchased the preamp said it was as good as the Cary SLP98 he purchased. That would be a matter of opinion.
Good luck!