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
If you mean how do you locate it, one way is with a constant test tone and SPL meter. The other way is to walking around the room holding a medium-size box with some small holes drilled into it and when the box is in a standing wave you can feel it vibrate.
u need to focus on the preamp, fix your bass issues later....

ARC SP-15 also fits the bill is hyper reliable, has phono and a remote !

but you have been given a ton of great advice on excellent sounding preamps!
+ 1 on Audible Illusions preamps.

There are currently three listings for the 3A model on the website of The Music Room (TMRAudio.com). They are priced from $1474 - 1615.
Most of the time they will post their listings here on Audiogon.
Check out Aric Audio. Aric is a great guy to work with , and will build a completely bespoke preamp to your exact specifications, should you desire. Many would also suggest Don Sachs, and his gear is great, but Aric's attention to customer service won me out.
++ Don Sachs Audio. Don is a great guy to deal with and will work with you to make it the way you need it to be.