Budget preamp with quality volume control

I actually enjoy to read about the hardship that Steve Huffman went through when he heard the transformer buzz/hum from his over $10k Luxman and then found the Puritan 156 to finally tame it down. My Parasound amps have a bit transformer hum as well that I need to 2 ft close to hear it but is enough to trigger my irritation.  I was doing the similar things, i.e., DC offset and Monster power conditioner, trying to get rid of it but without success. It is tempting but I could not justify spending $2k to cure the hum of $1k amp.

I found a used mPre selling for $700.  Is it a fair price? It is such a pity that its DAC section only supports up to 24/96 (usb) and 24/192 and no DSD. Well, let me sleep on it.  

Yes, $700 is fair used. You would probably just have to update the firmware through a USB download. Make sure the seller has the original box, packing materials and manual so if you wanted to sell it at a later date.

With mine I don't intend to keep it as Wyred 4 Sound let's you trade in or should I say trade up when bought directly from them. I agree with you that the dac is the weakest link, but it's built like a tank with shielding and other positives and at the time I just needed a reliable head unit on the cheap and usually in those circumstances the dac is what it is.

Even though I have thousands of cd's and hundreds of 'albums', as I said in an earlier post I am a crate digging needle dropper and I mostly use my turntable and can always upgrade and invest in a separate dac at a later date since I already own a cd transport. And that's exactly why Wyred 4 Sound made the mPRE the way it is cause it is essentially a head unit/pre amp 'starter kit'.

Late to the party; Schiit Freya+ here as well. Initial money saved on a comparable pre will get you into upgraded dac, (if wanted) ect. Season with NOS tubes of your choice whenever upgraditis hits; as opposed to spending 4K on a newer,"better" pre.

You want a good preamp? Find yourself an Apt Holman that's been recapped. Has the stepped precise volume control you want. Yes, it's 40 years old but there are few better "budget" preamps on earth.

I would agree with above find an older badboy. It will mop the floor with a new cheap  one. I would personally  look for an Ayre k1xe  or k3 or a canary 800 pair. The old classe Dr series would be great a threshold  fet 10e etc get yourself  a top pf the line older unit.