Sleeper preamps: $500 new/used

I purchased a used MFA Magus A in 1995 - never gotten rid of it. I use it exclusively as a phono stage now as the Conrad Johnson's of the world have overtaken it's line stage. In 2003, I had Scott Frankland redo it - new capacitors, new pots, new jacks, modifications to the power supply etc.

It responds well to tube choice. For the 12AT7, use a Amperex or Mullard. ECC801S or 6201 can be used as well. The 12AX7's should be Electroharmonix or Mullard. ECC 83 can be used, particularly the Telefunken. Also good are 5751's from Jan Phillips or Raytheon. Military spec 5751's are much cheaper and more plentiful - Sylvania, Raytheon, or RCA.

It's great with a CJ Premier 16, ET3 or 5. It can grow with you. Someday I'll get a Wavestream Kinetics or TEA 1 but until then, the Magus is great.

The APT 1 designed by Thom Holman (also known for a little project he did for George Lucas called 'THX'). He pretty much nailed phono stage design around 1980. Not to mention the most useful preamp controls ever, including a proper subsonic filter (an absolute necessity with modern ported speakers), adjustable phono loading, a channel blend that fixes a lot of imaging issues and actual usable tone controls. 

 

Onkyo P-308

 

  one of the best preamps out there. 
great phono, great features, no crosstalk,

dead quiet, still looks amazing!

 

sound is warm to neutral, 

best pre for the money you,can get 

Lots of good choices.   I’ll add the Sonic Frontiers SFL-1.    I picked one up for $500 as a back up and it’s been in my system for a few months as I await my DHT preamp that is being built 

Prob get a Jolida Tube Preamp for around that. Really good. Not the quietest but really fruity and awesome!