Which preamp to buy?

Preservation is the key word here, to preserve all that is good within the system while gaining in the areas you feel are it's weakness.

Dave

With your equipment, you probably need a preamp that warms the sound a little (particularly for Jazz).

I would suggest a Cary SLP-88, available well under your price limit. Another option would be a Rougue 66.

Michael

I agree with the others with the c-j 17LS recommendation. Well worth the additional dollars!

Good Luck!*>)

And now for something completely different. I don't subscribe to the "all Krells are bright,(etc.)". I think the KSA 250 might even be a bit warm. If you want to balance the sound that attracted you to the KSA 250 in the first place with some tubes, I suggest a Sonic Frontiers Line stage. A very neutral tube stage that has a low output impedance, is DC coupled (Krells rightly or wrongly are reputed to be sensitive to DC offset), offers true balanced inputs and outputs, a nice remote and is built as well as a Krell. BTW, I've been using c-j pre/power on Thiels for many years.

VTL 2.5 or 5.5. Both are currently in production, VTL seems like it is going nowhere, and the two units sound very good. The 5.5 is a great piece and the successor to the great VTL Ultimate preamplifier.