Slow upgrade from integrated - pre or power first?

Power amp first. That will give you the ability to bi-amplify should you choose. There really is not a right answer, you have to decide which is better for you.

If you are buying used, it may be which piece comes up for sale at the best price.

Man, I should have read more carefully before my post: Would I be able to hook up the Modwright (funny, but that is the pre I've been looking at)to my YBA Passion Integre? Benefits of some sweet solid state watts coupled with an excellent tube pre? Good idea?

Tim; normally I would suggest the power amp first, but in your case with the 2 components you're proposing, I suggest the Modwright pre as it is the superior piece of gear and you may want to upgrade your amp to possibly tube or better than MF amp, good luck, Mike

Tim:

You realize of course that your MF A3.2 only has a PREAMP OUT and not a PREAMP IN, so you will not be able to use your MF A3.2 as a power amp with a new preamp.

I learned this the hard way when I purchased a MF CD PRE24 (preamp/cd player combo) to use with my MF A3 integrated amp and wound up only being able to use the cd player portion of the MF CD PRE 24. This led to a purchase of a MF A300 power amp and a sale of a MF A3.2 integrated, when all I originally wanted was a matching A3 cd player, which by then had been discontinued. I had received a great price on the CD PRE 24 (it is in use today with a Prima Luna Prologue Five power amp) and I liked all its preamp capabilities, but I could not use it with the MF A3 integrated.

Why did MF do it this way with A3/A3.2? Because they saw owners using the A3/3.2 with other power amps (like mono blocks)or a HT receiver, not another preamp.

So, about all you can do is change the power amp at this point ... or get another integrated (think Prima Luna Prologue One or Two for tubes).

Regards, Rich

Thanks for all the great responses so far. I am leaning toward acquiring the pre-amp first.

Rar1 - The MF A3.2 *does* have a pre-amp in, in the form of the Auxiliary 2 (Home Theatre Direct) inputs. To quote from the manual "When selected they are routed inside the A3.2 directly to the power amplifier circuit, which is not controlled by the volume adjustment." As far as I can tell from manuals on MF's web site, early versions of the A3.2 did not have this feature.

Tim