Pre-amp with balanced suggestions?

The Doge 8 at $1550 and the Doge 8 Clarity at $1950 are both excellent preamps and have a very good phono stage. It is very good looking and unsurpassed in performance at anywhere close to its price level. It is available at Pacific Valve.

Greg

A new Kavent S-33 is much cheaper than 3K, and will stuff the monkeys out of most gear 3 times the price.

Lots of good stuff in that price range - I second the Aesthetix Calypso. If you research this, don't let the folks who tell you to tube roll scare you off. The stock tubes sound great. I have used both the stock tubes and NOS tubes from Andy's Vintage tube services and while they are different, they both sound great, and the stock tubes are more neutral...

Another vote for the Doge 8 preamp.

I'm looking for something under $3000 used, transparency, detail, and holographic imaging are my priorities. Something that adds color is not what I want, just neutral and clean.

So what might you suggest?

I suggest you stretch your budget a bit and get this:

Ayre K-1xe Preamp for sale here on Audiogon for $3,700

I've had one for several years, and have been very happy with it. (In fact, it is now the oldest major component in my system.) FYI, while the one for sale does not have the phono boards, if you ever want to upgrade your phono preamp, the internal phono boards are near reference quality. (Note: The K-1xe has been discontinued, but it remains a reference quality preamp, IMHO, and Ayre does provide service for these still.)

My two cents worth.

(FYI, I have no affiliation with the seller of the aforementioned K-1xe.)