Just purchased a Belles 150A Reference amp. Watch should my preamp be..

Belles Aria preamp will seem clearer faster
 its only1200 bucks new and made in USA
 Best JohnnyR

Would a Cary SLP-98 preamp be sufficient? Or should I look for a Belles preamp such as the Aria with the Cary as phono preamp? Trying to have a real cherry of a system.

Just purchased a Belles 150A Reference amp.

You need to look at the gain and input impedance, before jumping in, so should others.

With an input impedance of 100kohm and gain at only 1.27v!! for full output the 150A is begging for a passive preamp or active with very low gain.

As a medium/high gain preamp will have it’s volume control too low down for very high listening level already, not giving you much control over the volume, and also having higher noise figures because your throwing away the sources gain.

A Shiit Freya will give you the option of passive, tube or solid state outputs at lower gain than normal active preamps. As it has many good features.

http://www.schiit.com/products/freya

And get a good phono stage with low output impedance with medium to high gain.

Cheers George

Hadn't heard anything, but glowing reviews of that Belles unit. Is it just that it doesn't fit in my system well? Or does that Belles 150a necessarily limit preamp choice? 

Unfortanely for me, I am a newbie and those numbers mean next to nothing, and I have been resorting to judging equipment based on other's characterization. Is there a simplified video crash course or articles that help me understand why those numbers should be alarming to me.