Best Preamp For $1200 Used

The latest used or demo Audible Illusions M3A with upgraded tubes is a tough act to follow.Great detail,soundstage, sounstage depth,transparency, micro and macro dynamics, great bass ,smooth highs and outstanding mids .A full warm and natural realistic sound!Not tubey,not cold it does it just right,at least in my system it does, and my audio buddies love the sound,not bad since the two of them can be very critical .The M3 has been around since 1993 and has been refined every year.In 1996 it was so much improved that it became the M3A and refinements have occured each year,right up to the current model.The latest model ,no longer has the rep. of being a tube eater as this problem of limited tube choices has been solved! On the down side their service is very slow and as long as you do not need a phono upgrade you will not need to wait up to 3 months as others have.It has been so fine tuned with constant upgrades and top parts as well as built like a tank that service is a very rare possibility.It is a worthy contender in the $1200. price range.Some say that the L-1 is the same pre amp without the phono stage and this is wrong as the L-1 has not had all of the production upgrades of the M3A .Happy hunting.

I can sell you my presence audio linestage for less than $1200(see preamps-tube). It is fundamentally a better unit than the audible illusions preamp. Sorry about the plug, but you'll thank me later

I WOULD STICK WITH AUDIO RESEARCH.NOT ONLY DO THEY SOUND THE BEST, THIS COMPANY IS THE BEST.

I like the Audio Research SP series.They are excellant sounding preamps. 89vett

i had only one experience w/ar - their sp9 mkll. i bought one used a few years ago, it was positively *awful*! the dealer suggested new sovtek 6922's. an improvement, but still unbelievably dull & slow - it was like the music was in slo-motion. even my old adcom gft1a was more listenable. i *wanted* to like it, cuz it was so nice-looking, but the dealer took it back after a week of my trying. arcam stuff creamed it, my old electrocompaniet ec1a (which i still love, but it doesn't have remote) creamed it, my old linn kairn creamed it, my new linn kairn creams it. perhaps other ar stuff is better...