Anyone own one of these preamps ?

Backert Labs. Lots of connectivity for whatever direction your system might go. Do some research. Rarely seen on the used market.

@longplayer thanks that’s an interesting one I hadn’t seen before.   Do you own one of these?  Which model?

@analog_tiffer  I have had the Backert Labs Rhumba Extreme 1.4 (now $8500) for two years. It replaced a Coincident Statement Preamp that I had had for a decade or more. My best audio buddy bought a used Rhumba 1.2 many years ago, and I was very impressed with it, which led to me buying a new 1.4. Since I've done some bi-amping and running subwoofers, I really appreciate the two balanced and two single-ended outputs, which can be combined and intermixed. I use it with Class D solid state and tube amplifiers. They are not a famous brand because they are a boutique manufacturer that only makes preamps (and a phono stage), so they can't afford to do a room at shows, and dealers at shows rarely use them because they want to show matching pre and power amps. It has been trouble-free, and uses only 1 pair of tubes, so it is easy to roll tubes if you're into that. Highly recommended. The basic  Rhumba is in your price range. Do some research.

For something completely different...

I've not seen this preamp mentioned in the discussions, however, if one were to ignore price points and just review preamps for the features they have, and how they sound, I can highly recommend the Akitika PR-102 Preamp.  Available as a kit, or one can order it factory-built, it has options for a remote control of volume & balance, has multiple amp outputs for use with mono-block amps (also great for A/B comparisons), it also features mute & hush capabilities, and multiple tape inputs for mixing, as well as 4 line inputs and a phono stage (optional), a Headphone amp output (optional Front Panel output), Tone control switching (in or out), and many other functions...  Price- all features including parts and labor are about $900-$1K ( yes $1000)  If you can find a preamp with all these features and sounds like an $8-10K preamp, that is great value and performance-  also made here in USA too.  It's also Solid-State, so it won't make a tube amp sound overly warm and it doesn't color the sound, it has a very neutral tone/sound quality, as it should for a solid-state preamp.  I use a PR-102 with our tube amps all the time and and it never gets any attention, which suggests that preamp is doing its job quite well.  Except for the ugly illuminated Green power switch (I changed mine to a Black un-illuminated switch).  I suggest one visit the Akitika website, or visit Update My Dynaco.com for more info...  The downside:  No XLR / Balanced interfaces, RCA only interface.  However, think its time to suggest Dan make an XLR upgrade....

Ancient 'phile here. Owned a lot of kit over the decades. but for the last ~8 years a dac/pre; Audio Alchemy  DDP-1, which died about 4 months ago. Thinking it might cost to much to repair, I contacted AA but got no response, which was a blessing in disguise. Being retired living on SS ans a small monthly insurance stipend, even used hi-end kit is out of h question. I had been watching YTVs (made by several non-hi-end reviewers) about various Asian companies making quality audio, but as a Amazon not only do they carry most of the brands I was curious about, but free returns AND 6 no interest payments: first I bought a SMSL PL200T top loading transport, and partly because it decodes MQA (I know not many many of  them available, but still)... Amazing for $500. Next I bought a Topping D90iii Dac/Pre; a one bit, discrete, fully balanced @ $999 (MSRP of AA  when new was $2600), and as good as. Reading more, several reviewers urged getting a preamp. I bought the Topping D90 @$900) . IMHO, all outstanding value for < a quality used transport, dac or pre. High end prices are dinosaurs. HTH