Best preamps under $800


I need advice and suggestions. I've been living with a less than ideal set up for the past few months and it needs to be changed. I'm using the preamp section of a receiver to drive a Parasound amp. Speakers are Dahlquist DQ-30. The amp made an incredible difference! I never knew what I was missing. It's time to get rid of the receiver. I don't want to spend more than $800 on a preamp. The only requirement I have is a remote control. I don't need a phono section. I have that covered with a Musical Fidelity X-LPS. I've been looking at Musical Fidelity pre's A3CR and A3.2CR. They make great products that are afffordable. I considered the MAD Line 2A, but the lack of a remote is an issue. I want the convenience of switching sources and volume control. What other preamps should I be looking for? Are there any issues with matching a SS amp with a tube pre? Thanks in advance!
mingles
There's a used Rogue 66 on sale right now on AGon for $795. A great tube preamp. And, no, I'm not the seller.
Cary SLP50A with remote option is very nice. Uses 6FQ7/6CG7 tubes that are not expensive. Tubes last forever.
I would definitively check out TAD 150 (Tube Audio Design), only heard good things. Do a search here on audiogon, there has been some discussion on it in the context of an upgrade from MF A3cr.
I have been very happy with my Parasound P3 pre and it should match up favorably to your Parasound amp. You can get them used for around $500.
Most significant improvement I have made in my system was to go with a tube linestage and a SS power amp ... your half way there.

AES, TAD, Rogue and I really like the Cary stuff ... any one of them will no doubt make a huge improvement. Does Audio Research make anything with a remote? I have seen many deals in your price range.

I'm running a Modwright SWL 9.0 SE and life has never been better; even food tastes better! Boss asks if I've lost weight ... (grin)

Get out your CD collection because it was like getting everything in my collection remastered.

The Horse

X
I agree with Horseface that a tube pre is the way to go. You could get a sonic frontiers line 1 for less than your budget. Comes with neat remote and is highly recommended.
I had both a MF A3cr and 3.2cr. They are great values and I think they are very tough to beat. They have a built in phono that is close to your MF XLPS, so you could sell that and save some money. If you want to go tube, Conrad-Johnson pre's are very good. The entry level PV-10b does not include remote however.

Paul
I'm sold on the tube preamp with ss amp concept, too. Music just sounds sweeter and more enjoyable through a tubed preamp without any loss of details. Not to say that you can't get this sound from a very good ss preamp but, in my experience, they're hard to find and very expensive.
There's a general rule that states the input impedance of the amp should be roughly 10 times the output impedance of the preamp to be a good match. For example, my preamp's output impedance is 200 ohms and my amp's input impedance is 22,000 ohms and they work well together (200x10=20,000, which is close to 22,000).
There are plenty of good tubed preamp products out there: CJ, Rogue, Cary, VTL, Modwright, BAT, ARC TAD, etc are some more affordable ones....checkout the tubed preamps here for sale. Good luck.