A balanced passive preamp?

If you're willing to stretch it to $2250 the new Bent TAP would be the ticket. There are occasionally balanced versions of the Sonic Euphoria that come up used as well. Promitheus is another option. To my knowledge only the Bent has remote.

The Placette Passive Linestage(or just the remote volume control) are both available in a true balanced configuration. (http://www.placetteaudio.com/)

The Adcom GFP-750 is an excellent pre-amp that's also well below your price. If you're not familiar with it, here's a review -

http://www.stereophile.com/solidpreamps/133/index.html

Goldpoint has a single in/out model for $442 and a 1 in/2 out or 2 in 1 out model for $572.