Since selling my John Wood pre/power combo I have been trying to find a pre amp that delivers on every front but doesnt cost an arm and a leg. Its a challenge, especially when it needs to drive a pro-audio equaliser with a 10k input.

Right now I have;

DCB1 turbo
looks great and sounds fantastic. Smooth with loads and loads of detail. but I am maximing out the volume. I need more gain.

Philips Back Tulip AH380
dates from 1979, drives the equaliser with ease and has loads of gain. This sounds really dynamic, loads of PRAT. The detail is there too but compared with the DCB1 its a tad grainy and coarse. Toying with some cap upgrades which I am told will help - but I am not sure it will get to the smoothness of the DCB1

Toft LBPA5
rare as hens teeth, made by the legendary Malcom Toft, once the CD is padded down this is somewhere between the above 2 and in many ways a good step in the right direction but in direct comparisons the sound has slighly less body and details plus a mild shrillness on some tracks.

In the past I have tried a range of valve pre-amps but from memory they seemed to gloss over the detail, create a nice sound but having listened to the above I want to hear the detail too.

I am guessing that I could probable get close to £1500 if I sold all three of the above pre amps but I like them all in their own individual ways so am thinking is there another way?

I need to marry detail, clarity, PRAT and warmth for under £500, best of all worlds means cheap too

  • stand alone 10-20db gain stage for the DCB1 that will drive a 10k load?
  • a different pre - chinese, vintage, other?