This is really tough. No one has them in-stock. All special order. The key is finding the right feature set and read some reviews. In that range, it is tough for something to go horribly wrong. It is not like you are going to get an ARC, VAC or AVM preamp and you are going to say, my god, this is crap.
The critical thing is make sure that it is compatible in advance with your power amp. Biggest issue is going to be an output impedance and/or gain mismatch. After that, rely on the house sound and favorable reviews.
This is part of the reason I am such a big fan of AVM. The flexibility to tweak the preamp with different cards and to adjust the output makes it much more flexible than most.
One option might be at least see if you can get store credit back if you really hate it. There are usually restrictions. You will be stuck with what that retailer sells, usually restocking fees, etc... But it is better than losing 50%+ on a device you want to resell that you hate. I customize those things based on the order.
The critical thing is make sure that it is compatible in advance with your power amp. Biggest issue is going to be an output impedance and/or gain mismatch. After that, rely on the house sound and favorable reviews.
This is part of the reason I am such a big fan of AVM. The flexibility to tweak the preamp with different cards and to adjust the output makes it much more flexible than most.
One option might be at least see if you can get store credit back if you really hate it. There are usually restrictions. You will be stuck with what that retailer sells, usually restocking fees, etc... But it is better than losing 50%+ on a device you want to resell that you hate. I customize those things based on the order.
