I have to say this about the Classic 2 SE, it was the single most noticeable upgrade ever in any of my systems over the years. I've had a number of very good preamplifiers over the years and this unit walks all over them in terms of sound quality . Zero listening fatigue with this pre, I can and often do listen for hours on end.
This unit gets looked down upon due to lack of remote, but it is all about the sound with this pre. It's a complete 180 compared to some of my previous preamplifiers. No balance control or tone controls, just a power switch, a source selector, and a volume knob....that's it. It's a sleeper that will probably get passed over due to its lack of remote which is too bad....