I was in a similar situation: good amp with no volume control, good speakers, but little budget for a preamp. I bought the new Emotiva BasX PT1. The edgy treble was too much for me. I did notice that putting a second preamp, a Xiangsheng 728A, after the Emotiva smoothed things (but preceding the Emotiva it did not). Fortunately, Emotiva honored its no-reason-needed return policy. I stretched my budget to a Van Alstine Transcendence RB 10, which is his budget tube preamp. The setup is marvelous now, detailed without going edgy and musical without going muddy.