What Solid State PreAmp?

I'm sorry to bogart your thread a bit, but I have to ask why somebody would decide a priori to limit a preamp search to SS. With power amps, I can certainly understand, as there there are real negatives associated with tubes - heat, wear, etc. But most valved preamps have tube lifetimes in the tens of thousands of hours - it's a non-issue. As is heat. There are just no meaningful negatives with tubes in this area, and while there are some transistor preamps that sound just great, there are sure a lot more tubed preamps that sound *really* great and it seems to be much easier to do with tubes.

Just food for thought. Maybe you have reasons for limiting yourself to SS that I don't understand.

From Chord to EMMLabs Switchman - what functionality do you want/need - to me the functionality is an important thing in a pre - not just the "specs" (which often exceed the recording quality). Do you want to be able to control one or two subwoofers? Do you want room EQ? Do you want all balanced inputs and outputs. Do you need digital in with master clock or just Toslink or Tos + SPDIF or multiples of each?

Parasound or PS Audio GCP 200/GCPS

You owe it to yourself to audition the new Belles LA-01 SS preamp. It is truely one of the great pre's available. Make sure you listen to one that has about 200Hours under it's belt. A very musical two box pre that will fall into the lower end of your price range. Bruce Jacobs is the marketing guru for Dave Belles and can be reached at either 920-277-9468 or 920-582-5982.