I second the recommendation of the Joule Electra preamp. They are extremely musical and dynamic. An equal but somewhat different kettle of fish from the BAT "SE" series of preamps (using the "supertube"), but far superior (I think) to the earlier BAT models that are likely to be in your price range. I have listened extensively to a system with the EMC-1 CD player and a Joule Electra preamp (an older LA 200), and in my opinion it is just plain more beautiful and engaging than just about any digital system I've heard.
What tube preamp to get to smooth out the sound?????
Hi have Wadia 850 cdp directly to pair of Odyssey Monoblocks, speakers are NHT 3.3's...Im very happy with the strengths of each component but recently sold a Adcom gfp 750 pre because all I listen to is CD, so I figure why not sell it and go direct..but the sound is not as good as when I had the preamp, direct sounds more hard/etchy , not as smooth as with the pre..I want to buy another pre but get something better than what I had before instead of SS was thinking of getting into tubes to get more warmth/smoothness I want to get rid of any harshness/etchines .... trying to keep it under 2k used, any suggestions from others who had this kind of problem I hear BAT is particulary good...