Balanced Pre for Bi Amping Recommendations Please

Audio Research LS-10 is solid state and it has two sets of balanced outputs. It fits your description for the desired sound and it sells for around $1,800-$2,000 used. They pop up here on the 'Gon periodically. It has been called the best SS offering from AR ever.

I sold mine 5 months ago. I just bought another one last week and I'm awaiting delivery.

Audio Experience makes a balanced pre-amp. It's their top of the line. It has a source selector switch on the front plate and 2 volume knobs, one for each channel, and two sets of outputs. I like mine and price is under a thousand. This pre is FULLY BALANCED, and has single ended inputs as well. Ys Audio, the manufacturer in Hong Kong is a very reputable company, standing behind their merchandise. Their products offer great value for the money, IMHO. See if any other A'goner's have any familiarity with this unit.

Used, the Sonic Frontiers are balanced and SFL2's have dual outputs in XLR. I think the Line2 and Line3 do too. Factor in replacing tubes with NOS.

One of the most versatile preamps is the PS Audio PCA2, which goes for around $700 on the 'gon listings.

The Threshold T2 also had dual XLR's

In the higher end, I can only think of the Pass X0.2 and Ayre K1 that have dual XLR but they're more than your budget.

Forget the two outputs as a needed item, one pair and a quality Y interconnect is just as good as two seperate outputs. If the signal is split one inch inside the preamp or one inch outside the preamp is of no sonic difference.

Why do you want to go directly, via a pair of XLR outputs, from your pre-amp to your pair of amps? To bi-amp properly, i.e. actively, won't you need just one pair of XLR outputs from your pre-amp to go into a single pair of XLR inputs on an active X/O, which then connects via its two pairs of XLR outputs to your two amps?