Preamp suggestions, yes again

The Don Sachs preamp is a good suggestion, but over your budget. Don used to own a space tech labs preamp and he liked a lot, space tech labs has lots of models of preamps that are built to order. 

The Don Sachs preamp is just the VTA SP14 built on a custom chassis.  The SP14, with a remote, is available in kit form for $1390 and fully assembled & tested for $1790.  The kit is no more difficult to build than any Dynaco piece and comes with excellent instructions.  If you can solder, you can build this preamp.  You get to save $400 AND come away with enormous satisfaction.

I recently borrowed some audio equipment from a friend.  The Shiit Saga + II and the Bifrost DAC.  Playing off an Innuos mini mk 3.  This is going to be difficult to beat for the price!  The voices became buttery smooth, more clear and detailed as I could want. Increased detail I never heard before. Symbols decay and ring. You hear the tip of the drum stick it is amazing.  Bass is clear and solid. I would keep them because I think he wants to sell them. I am older and want more controls on a remote and preamp than what Shiit offers. If I were younger I would not mind a basic setup.  I also want tone controls for older less quality recorded music.

The Quicksilver HP amp used as a pre continues to impress. So much so that I don’t think I can return to the Freya — sucks in a way because I’ve amassed a collection of 6SN7s. I’ll be placing a call to QS next week to inquire whether I can expect similar or even better performance from their Remote Line Stage preamp.

Hi
Don Sachs here. I normally stay out of threads, but I just want to clear up the misconception stated above. Yes, my preamp starts with the bare sp14 board. That is it. The circuit is a very good SRPP with an Akido buffer and the first time I heard it I knew it was very special sounding. Over the past 4 or 5 years I have developed my version, and I have gotten Roy to make major modifications to the board that have improved it considerably. This has resulted in a much better preamp kit for all of the kit builders. That said, my preamp is not just an sp14 board in a pretty case. I run the tubes at a different operating point, I have modified the regulated filament supplies to lower noise, I have modified the preamp to use a much better rectifier tube, I choose every single part for a certain sound based on my experience restoring 500+ pieces of vintage tube gear, and building 200+ pieces of custom tube gear of my own. I have shortened the signal path considerably. I use some very special signal path wire and output caps I love. I have experimented extensively to hear which parts have the most sonic effect. There are a number of other things I have done that I won’t go into.

So, if you build one of Roy’s SP14 kits, you will have probably the best preamp you have ever heard for peanuts, and yes, you will have the joy of building it yourself. Please go for it if you are so inclined as they are wonderful! That said, mine is 20-25% better because of the above. I am sure many of the other preamps mentioned in this thread are wonderful as well. There are many paths to Audio Nirvana....

cheers,
Don