seeking recommendations for a preamp


I've been lurking a while, but this is my first post. I will appreciate any advice given, and thank you for reading this.

My Kenwood C2 bit the dust. I have lost the right channel, and the input selector is also going out. I'm looking to replace it, and upgrade quite a bit. The wife has given me a $2500 budget, new or used is ok. I listen to Vinyl a lot, as well as my echo dot which is also plugged into my preamp with a headphone to RCA adapter. I'll list my other equipment now.

Completely rebuilt Altec A7-500 with all new parts from GPA
JBL L200s
Kenwood M1D amplifier
Homebrew rebuilt Monoblocks from Zenith consoles with EL84/6BQ5
Yamaha EQ
Thorens TD 318 with an Ortofon cart. Unsure which one as I am at work
SVS PB16 ultra

The room is 16 wide by 20 deep. I primarily listen to the Altecs and tube amps with the SVS sub taking up the slack in the bass from the A7s. Sometimes I listen to the JBLs driven by the Kenwood M1D. I notice that the echo dot sounds a lot better than my turntable, so I know I must be needing a better phono stage. I've tried swapping out turntables with a couple of Dual 1229s with Shure M97XE carts that Bill at fixmydual has gone through thoroughly so It's not isolated to my Thorens. I guess I' surprised that the $30 Echo Dot sounds so much better.  

I admit I don't have the best cables, and will upgrade those as I can. I feel like the preamp is the heart of the system so I want to make a good choice. I love Macintosh, based purely off emotion, but don't know if it's the best choice for my situation. I do not have a local shop to audition, and none of my friends are into audio. What preamps should I be looking at ??
128x128adrianleewelch
There’s a refurbished Audible Illusions M3b on US Audiomart for $2400. I currently have one and it’s hard to beat especially at that price. It also has a phonostage.
my my biggest surprise was a used Onkyo P-308 preamp.

 Absolutely amazing. Warm, features, and a very relaxed sound.  
  Can be had for 3-400$
sent mine in for a upgrade/recap about 8 months ago, completely defined the sound, warmer, more relaxed, just all around an amazing preamp.
will compete with preamps 4X the price.

listen and believe! just a great preamp!!

conrad Johnson 
B&K pro 10
many choices.

 That onkyo is a helluva bargain!
Yes, I am seeing there are TOO many choices although I suppose that is a good thing. I do see though, that a lot of the "better" preamps may not have a phone stage. Im thinking maby I don't want a built in phone stage afterall…….I was just thinking about a simple setup, but that's never the case is it ?
Audio by Van Alstine refurbished Dynaco PAS-3. Hard to find a better phono preamp than that for under three grand!  Or perhaps their Transcendence or Vision models.