If your choice is a new one, I think you'd be better off getting the real thing: a used Aleph P with remote, for not much more $$.
OTOH I was SO disappointed with the N804 (specifically produced for the American market to meet a price-point as an afterthought by B&W!), that I have to suggest you try what I think are better speakers around the same price, like Revel F30, Aeriel 7b, Thiel 2.3, or any of the others Audiogoners would suggest. Sorry...just one guy's opinion, but I believe your weak link is with your loudspeakers incoherence and weird spectral response, and not with subtleties in similar preamp designs....
OTOH I was SO disappointed with the N804 (specifically produced for the American market to meet a price-point as an afterthought by B&W!), that I have to suggest you try what I think are better speakers around the same price, like Revel F30, Aeriel 7b, Thiel 2.3, or any of the others Audiogoners would suggest. Sorry...just one guy's opinion, but I believe your weak link is with your loudspeakers incoherence and weird spectral response, and not with subtleties in similar preamp designs....