Looking for a preamp with XLR connections

Parasound JC2

$3500 new

leaves you a budget for great cables

Good luck Willy-T

I know you said no tubes, but check out PS Audio’s BHK preamp.  It’s a hybrid so it has some small tubes, but they will last ten thousand hours.

Just a thought.

JD

There's a lot of incredible preamps for $10k.  

• XLR connections doesn't mean fully differential balanced circuitry
• There are excellent solid state preamps and furthermore there are exception preamps "plus" that include phono stage, DAC or DAC/Streamer

I have Moon by Simaudio 390 and I think it's excellent.  I previously had a McIntosh C2600 which is a tube preamp and if money wasn't a consideration I'd probably went for a ARC preamp.

Listen to as many options as you can - there's certainly a number of strong options.  Enjoy the journey.

@styleman 

Several others already answered your question

@agolde1110

The AGD Alto Reference Preamplifier · AGD Productions

is a fully balanced design end-to-end

The Phono stage also uses a completely balanced design.