Hello from the spanner in the BREXIT works (Northern Ireland)

[Achim]

Hi!

I just joined to get some insights on a suitable new preamp for my system which didn't change much over the past 20 years until we moved from London to Northern Ireland at the beginning of this year (change of life style). I listen to rock, jazz, and classical music and value transparency, soundstage and fast, extended bass.

Until the move the system consisted of a Meridian 502 pre-amp, Meridian 605 mono blocks, Meridian 506.20 CD player, Pink Triangle PT Too, Alphason HR-100S tonearm, Audio Technica AT37 MC, Nakamichi RX-505 cassette deck, Revox B77 reel-to-reel, B&W 801 Matrix S2 speakers, Titan Audio mains distribution block, Titan Audio and QED mains cables, VanDamme LF-OCC speaker cables (biwired). I was very happy with this.

Just before moving to NI I bought a Krell KSA250 (because I'd always wanted one). In the new house I've got a dedicated music room (aka The Man Cave), which is about three times the size (5x10x2.6m) our living room in London was. I very quickly discovered that the Meridian 502 preamp was not a good match for the Krell: there was a distinct lack of bass. After playing around with speaker positioning to no avail I then tried swapping the 502 for an Arcam FMJ A19 integrated amp with preamp outputs that I had sitting around. Better bass response but still not perfect. The 506 CD player went to join the 605s and the 502 upstairs in the living room and was replaced by a Denon DVD1930 that's feeding a Shiit Modi 2 Uber DAC.

The PT Too needed a lot of work so I bought a new Funk Firm Vector 5 and installed the Alphason arm, replacing the AT37 with an Ortofon 2M Black at the same time. Both sound great, even through the Arcam's nothing-special phono stage.

A couple of weeks ago the Arcam's display started acting up (losing the first segment of the LED display occasionally) so that's now packed up to get repaired under warranty. As a temporary fix I installed a Denon AVR3313 AV receiver (currently not in use on account of building works) and connected its preamp outputs to the Krell. Low and behold: all the lost bass is back! And its phono stage is surprisingly good...

As a temporary solution I can live with this but I do want a dedicated preamp which needs to tick the following boxes:
- remote control
- MM phono stage (if switchable to MC even better)
- at least one tape monitor circuit, two would be better
- XLR outputs (not strictly necessary)
- no silly price (budget about £1,500)

Most new preamps have no provision for a tape loop. Only a few have a built-in phono stage and the ones that do don't come with remote control. I like the look of the Parasound Halo P6. Is there anything else I should consider?

Many thanks for your input!
All the best,
Achim

PS: if anyone has a suitable used preamp for sale, feel free to ping me a PM.

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