The Placette Passive Preamp is the best sounding preamp that I have heard regardless of price. The volume control uses nothing but the best resistors available anywhere. Most systems that have efficient speakers need only a passive preamp anyway. It only costs $1400 and has a remote control as well. If you have efficient speakers and do not have a turntable, you owe it to yourself to check out the Placette website.
What's your High End best buy/unknown components?
There seem to be so many choices in high end audio products and only the most popular (reccomended/marketed) products are the one that sell. It would be interesting to compile a list of components that have not received as much exposure in the press or not been reviewed or listed as "reccomended" or heavily marketed that are truly excellent or best buys(not necessarily inexpensive) in audio. Nice to hear some dealers' comments since they are exposed to more components than we consumers.