best ss preamp for 2000 or less used

Bullwinkle's suggestion of a Klyne is rock solid. Most of the Klyne gear is well above the other brands mentioned here. You won't see too many of them used for two reasons:

1) There aren't that many built as these are all hand built by the designer himself. As such, they fall into the "labor of love" / "i did the best i could possibly do" category

2) The people that have them aren't parting with them

Those two statements alone should tell you what you need to know about Klyne gear. Sean
>

Being a McIntosh fan, I should maybe suggest you look into
one of the McIntosh preamps. Great build quality - and
very decent level control - both manually and with the
remote.If you are only using two channel audio, you might
look into the C-15 or C-712 preamps. Both have RCA and
balanced outputs, and can be had new or used for well under
$2K.

My klyne sk-6 pre is actually my favourite component. The sound is wonderful and it has all the facilities I need, including adjustable gain (no remote, but who cares?!). It is a little old (late eighties, early nineties I think) and for $2000 you might find the newer system six preamps (used). Only thing is that I rarely see them on the used market. Good luck with the search.

I am very happy with my Adcom GFP-750 preamp. It is the preamp for people that don't like preamps they tell me. Balanced with passive and active stage. and you can pick one up well under your price range

I'm happy with my Classe CP-60 w/ MM/MC phono stage. It also has a surround passthrough for my HT. List was $4200, I believe $3700 w/o phono. You can find them for less than $2K used. Good luck.

John