Best solid state pre-amp below US $ 10.000,00 ??

I know, I sound like a broken record, but those who have paid attention have repeatedly thanked me. I am soon going for a months vacation to Alaska. No H-Cats there.

Why not make it 2 months?
:-)

There has to be a match with the speakers, amp, and source. One man's trash is another man's treasure. So exactly what do you want to purchase this preamp to go along with???? What kind of sound do you want? what kind of music do you listen to??? All important questions before you delve into before even deciding ss is the way to go. Let alone a $10,000 one!

Guys thanks for the very nice and helpfull comments so far. I recently had three pre´s in my system: Jeff Rowland Concerto; Ayre K-1X Evo. and Chapter Audio Preface - the Chapter was by far the best of these three solid state pre´s although he has to be combined with a balanced external phono pre (my favourite is the Clearaudio Basic Synergy). In the next round I´ll compare him to Hovland HP-100 and CAT SL-1 Ultimate. So the quest continues.. But right now in my system the Chapter was by far the best. The Placette might be a great unit but looks awful and its built quality is quite "unusual". Didn´t even put it into my system although a friend borrowed one.

Frankpiet, when I first saw the Placette dual mono active line stage, I to also thought it was an "ugly ducking" untill I heard its sonic's in my system, than it became a "swan" in my eyes. I just paraphrased John Mark's words from his Absolute Sound reveiw were he gave the Placette one of the Golden Ear awards for that year. I have no idea were your coming from regarding its build quality, the inside parts/layout/consruction are world class and the chassis is well built, just not very pretty. My prior reference was a Mark Levinson 32 reference which was a great pre-amp and delightful "eye candy" but could not sonicly compete with the Placette in my system. So, my question, asked with respect, why would you not listen to this piece if you had it at home, instead of writing it off without any real audtion in your system? I also did listen to the Chapter pre-amp, it was not in my sytem but a system I was used to and found it to be good, but not on the same level of performance as the Placette. It would be great to hear your response. Thanks.