Preamp suggestions

Thank you mcreyn.  Your feedback has been incredibly useful in my decision making process.  I am ready to pull the trigger on the Emotiva unit you suggested.  Just before I do I got contacted by a friend yesterday who is selling his Parasound 2100 preamp. It looks interesting. It has a front facing MP3 jack with gain and also a frequency adjustable out for a sub in the back. I have the option of using a powered Pinnacle sub in my system at home.  Also has a remote, phono section and meets the rest of my needs. Not sure of your thoughts on that... I would have mentioned it prior but I didn't hear this until last night.  He's asking $450 and it has had minimal use.  Also, does Furman make an equivalent power strip to the one you recommend?  I don't have my setup in a rack. Any ideas about a specific fan to cool the Naka?  Gratefully - Greg 

Also, your advice on bringing the Naka in for tech service is a great thought.  Just before I purchased it the seller had brought it in to a tech in Watertown MA who has 40+ years of experience at Audio Proz.  He went through it thoroughly and bench tested it and said it is very close to new in condition and functioning like a new amp.  

The Parasound 2100 is a great unit and will work well for your application. Here are my reservations:

1) I think the asking price is a bit high. A quick search of Ebay shows the last two units sold for $329 and $400. The $329 one was missing the remote, the $400 one was listed as one week old, used once. I would say a fair price would be $350-375.

2) The Parasound doesn’t have a DAC built in. I suspect the DAC in the Emotiva is better than the one in your CD Player, as well as any entry level streamer you may buy in the future. That said, you could easily add an outboard DAC in the future, a Schiit Modi 3 is $100 and an upgrade from most entry level CD and streamer DACs.

I do like the Parasound has the built in crossover, so you can high pass your Snell’s if you run a subwoofer.

At the end of the day, I think you will be happy with either the Emotiva or the Parasound. Buy the one that speaks to you and makes you warm and fuzzy.

In regard to the Furman power conditioner, you could use the SS-6B for $40, or SS-6B Pro for $60. You give up the power conditioning, but keep the good surge protection, which is what I am mostly concerned with. I would hope using one would avoid any future potential equipment damage.

For cooling the Nakamichi, the biggest thing is make sure it has plenty of room around it.  Elevating it an inch or two can help considerably with passive cooling.  A fan is probably not necessary if the bias has not been increased from factory (which it appears Nelson Pass was discussing).  But for a fan, any little fan you can find, preferably plugged into a different circuit to help eliminate a potential source of electrical noise.  Something like this would work well:

https://www.newegg.com/p/13K-0092-00064?Description=120vac%20fan&cm_re=120vac_fan-_-9SIAG799H31410-_-Product

I prefer not having a built in dac in a preamp / integrated amp, as dacs are ever so changing, and as much of an excellent design it could be, digital circuits, ime, can effect, badly, analog circuits. Down to the shared power supplies and power cords, keep them separate.

Mrdecibel makes an excellent point, especially for someone that owens equipment long term, rather than trading around every few years.