Help me buy a magical pre-amp that doesn't exist!

[nayr]

I'm looking for a pre-amp, to go along with my new Behringer A500, with quite specific requirements. So far, it seems that this magical :B pre-amp does not exist, mostly due to the first requirement

-Costs in line with the Behringer. I will be selling a Rotel RA-02 Integrated amp so I'll have a budget of about $300-500, give or take, to work with. I'm willing to throw in some other money too if needed.

-Good sound, obviously. Neutral, no hiss.

-Solid state. I tend to leave my amps on 24/7 so tubes are frowned upon for this reason.

-Remote control. My laziness demands it.

-Balanced outputs/(at least one) input. I would prefer to run completely balanced, since I'm going into a pro crossover to and then to the A500.

-Reasonable cosmetics. I hate the 80ies look. This discredits Linn gear I've seen that fits pretty much everything else.

-MC phono stage! Ooh, I bet you guys all hate me now. There goes 99% of the candidates. 8)

-A 12v trigger would be nice too, but it's not a make-or-break feature.

I will most likely have to buy used, which doesn't phase me at all, but I really don't know what to look out for. Some suggestions would be so greatly appreciated! ;x(

Thanks in advance!

[twitch54]

Good Luck !! I think you'll need it given all your after, I personally put too much faith and demand into my pre to go "cheap", asking for a MC phono-pre, as you said, does make me want to laugh a bit !!

[nayr]

Thanks for the good luck! So far, through research and recommendations I've come up with the following:

In order of price:

Classe Thirty
Linn LK-1
NAD 116
Classe Five

Anybody know of others? Any thoughts between these four?

The NAD fits every requirement but might not sound as nice as the others. It's also a lot harder to find!

[Pez]

www.emotiva.com has a pre-amp for $499 (the LMC-1). The nice thing is that price is for a new unit. Given what you are after in your price range I think you have to sacrafice at least one of your requirements.