Recommendations please for good, affordable pre-amp for system?

Donzi-

I would buy a Bryston pre-amp. If you want to go into tubes- Audio research (ARC).  Keep me posted & Happy New Year!

Would this Dared 2a3c one be amp or preamp? And this Bottlehead BeePre 300B is preamp, right? If they are both pre's, I wonder how they compare? 
The Bottleneck thing really has my attention, and I would seriously consider that model. Compatible with the Thiels and Brystons, do you think? It's got three inputs, though, I and really need four. Can one pigtail the lesser two quality components and get away with this? And second question, might it be possible to add a set of RCA's and go directly to speaker output, to create my own HT passthrough? Or does that kind of thing really screw with the whole design?
I'm reading that the imput impedance of the Brystons is 50k/20k for direct/balanced. That BeePre output is 500/1000 for direct/balanced. So it would seem that (using what I read as a 10x factor) it would be acceptable for either with a computed minimum of 5k/10k amp input -- so on that count, if I both understand and do the computation correctly, the Brystons would work. (?)

And finally (wow, the questions never end), what's the wisdom on Balanced vs. Direct end? 

There are a couple of low end Bryston pre's that I'm looking at, such as this 0.5B. Would this be too low end? Or do you suspect that this actually would be a good match as you're suggesting? And if not, which are the ones you might suggest?

My room is about 27 x 37 x 9, with rug, combined dining room/living room. So the listening half is the right half of that space, with the listening area about halfway back. So large-ish, it would seem, for power needs. 

For any who may be interested, I got this preamp via auction. It's at least a good start, and may serve me for a decent point into the future. I am still highly interested in the possibility of building a tube pre, particularly in light of the discussion as to the clarity/sharpness of both the Thiels and Brystons. (Bryston, btw, was the brand that the current Thiel people recommended when I contacted them. So, in all events, I think I have all the parts now, and we shall see.) I'm actually excited about getting this all plugged in now, particularly after reading an old review on Thiel last night.

I'm still curious for the thoughts on the Bottlehead, and that specific model and how it might rank relative to others. And for the thoughts on Direct end vs Balanced, as I now need to cable the whole thing. And on that count, what do you collectively think of Monoprice as a cable source? 7mm solid copper.

Donzi, Quicksilver makes a small tube pre-amp that is both relatively inexpensive (especially if you get one that isn't a remote control model) and of pretty good quality. And it might put some flesh on those bare bones sounds you will get out of your Bryston/Thiels units. At least that will give you some kind of an indication of what you system will sound like with a good pre-amp. And, after hearing that you can make upgrades to improve on it if necessary. And if you don't like it and think you can do better it should be easy to sell. FWIW I agree with jmcgrogan whose comments reflect my experience with the Thiels. Personally, in your place I would buy an Integrated Amp with good current and modest power (note my comments in a previous post about power requirements) and forgo all of the torture you will endure in trying to put together a competent system at this stage of your audio experience. Even if you were moderately experienced in audio and audio equipment I think you would find what you are doing as daunting and frustrating. 

I would also suggest that you do some reading about  Audio so you can better understand what is going on in selecting equipment, setting it up and evaluating what you have accomplished. I recommend Robert Harleys book, "The complete guide to high end audio". 

Good luck