Wanted: good valve pre for 500 notes (ish)

[montesquieu]

Looking for a high-quality valve preamp around the £500 mark. Anything good out there?

The annoying thing is in recent times I've had two fantastic pres that would have really done the job here ... they just didn't suit the very high-sensitivity monoblocks I had at the time.

I've had a trawl already in the obvious places, just wondering if there's anything languishing in a cupboard somewhere .....

[Ali Tait]

WAD (WD) pre2 or 3 are very good indeed..

[Techno Commander]

Might be selling my Audio Note "The Preamp" in about a months time. Its a kit amp based on the Audio Note M7 circuit, which has been heavily uprated on the component front (black gates, copper foils & tantalum resistors. All up component cost was close to a grand, excluding the heavy aluminmium case. PM if interested.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg116/sillystuff99/Hi%20Fi/AudioNote.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg116/sillystuff99/Hi%20Fi/AudioNote2.jpg

[montesquieu]

Looks very interesting Andy ... PM sent.

[HighFidelityGuy]

The Croft Micro 25 Basic (http://www.croftacoustics.co.uk/m25basic.html) is supposed to be amazing value at £400 new. :)

[DSJR]

I was going to suggest the Croft as well. Certainly the best "safe" option if a good used item doesn't come up, as it's consistent, utterly reliable and very well put together - and that's before we think about the excellent sound it gives.