THRESHOLD S300

If you want to stay with Vintage I ran my Threshold S/300 series 2 with a Audio Research sp11 pream and it was a exceptional combo...Also has a great built in Phono section too....

Threshold's own fet10 combo will work very nicely. Audio Research and Sonic Frontiers (though I think with the S300 many of the benefits might be lost)) are reputed to be good tube matches. FWIW, Audio Research is also reputed to work well with Maggies. If cost is an issue, the Forte pre's might be worthy of consideration. I'm guessing that with the e series, if you want to use a tube pre, it might be prudent to stick with one of the few DC coupled tube pre's such as Atmasphere or Sonic Frontiers.

I run the S/300 with an Audio Research LS-2. It might be a good idea to have the S/300 checked - it's around 20 years old. Some caps might need replacing, the bias might need adjusting etc. No big deal the 300 is built as a tank, but some components do age.

I am most grateful to all who commented here. I do appreciate your great advice. It will be very useful to me as I look further into this awesome audio area. I cannot wait to move into my new digs and get everything set up and start listening to great music. Thanks much.

I've found s300e's that have balanced inputs but most don't. Anybody know if the XLR was a later addition to the s300e? I notice the used prices jump up for those as well. Or if there are any recommendations in the same price range (either older or newer) that had balanced inputs, any advice would be greatly appreciated!