Do you want vintage Mac. Then you can easily find an older one for that kind of money. The reissue is considerably more. Chances are that a McIntosh collector will be thinning his herd.
The best pre is none at all or so they say. The 2105 has separate gain controls so you can just plug in the one source you use most. Yoiu can spend the $1200 on a bigger Mac.
If you really need a couple of inputs, I suggest my personal favorite. It's a Cary made AES brand preamp called an AE-3. The latest version (and last as Cary decided to stop making AES stuff altogether.)with remote, and upgrades is available at Upscale Electronics but he loaded and inflated them with expensive parts like a cool paint job, I can tell you it doesn't need much modding if any.Now it exceeds your budget by 200 or 300 bucks. That is for a brand new one.
Also you might not want a tubed pre.This is about as simple as they come. Just 2 6SN7s you can get good 6SN7s for relatively little and it has a rectifier, also a common tube. It comes fully tubed of course.However old 6SN7s are abundant, The number of affordable brands around each with it's own sound make a few rolling experiments virtually mandatory.
If you prefer a very clean fast sound with perhaps over the top gain, try an old ARC pre. They made mostly tubed pres but some are SS or hybrid. ARC's early preamps are a little bit younger than the 2105 but not much. This time I can tell you tube rolling is not going to have as big an impact as with the AE-3. ( I own a SP6B)
Passives are another good choice but I will let others tell you about their favorites.
The best pre is none at all or so they say. The 2105 has separate gain controls so you can just plug in the one source you use most. Yoiu can spend the $1200 on a bigger Mac.
If you really need a couple of inputs, I suggest my personal favorite. It's a Cary made AES brand preamp called an AE-3. The latest version (and last as Cary decided to stop making AES stuff altogether.)with remote, and upgrades is available at Upscale Electronics but he loaded and inflated them with expensive parts like a cool paint job, I can tell you it doesn't need much modding if any.Now it exceeds your budget by 200 or 300 bucks. That is for a brand new one.
Also you might not want a tubed pre.This is about as simple as they come. Just 2 6SN7s you can get good 6SN7s for relatively little and it has a rectifier, also a common tube. It comes fully tubed of course.However old 6SN7s are abundant, The number of affordable brands around each with it's own sound make a few rolling experiments virtually mandatory.
If you prefer a very clean fast sound with perhaps over the top gain, try an old ARC pre. They made mostly tubed pres but some are SS or hybrid. ARC's early preamps are a little bit younger than the 2105 but not much. This time I can tell you tube rolling is not going to have as big an impact as with the AE-3. ( I own a SP6B)
Passives are another good choice but I will let others tell you about their favorites.