Affordable preamp with balanced outputs

I have a little dilema... I will be using 75' of balanced cables to connect my AVP to my power amps at the speakers, and I want to put my turntable close to the amps/speakers. I have a little Art phono amp, but the distance is too long to run an unbalance cable to the Yamaha cxa5100. I think the solution is to find a preamp with balanced outs to run balanced back to the Yamaha...this will also give me a re ote controlled volume for adjusting the volume after I sit down. I am having a hard time figuring out what to get as the high end units that I can afford are old enough to need new caps, etc., and the newer units are way over budget. I would like to spend around $500 for a preamp, and would like a small one like the Quad or Naim preamps. Doesn't have to be, but I do like the small footprint, plus I only need 2 inputs...one for phone, and one just in case I need to hook up another source temporarily.


Any suggestions, on what would work for me? I could go a little higher on the budget, but I would lime to keep it as inexpensive as possible, and sound as good as I can get it. The Art phono is good, but I know it is not that great (it is better than the phono stage in the cxa5100 though).

Thanks, now I just need to see if the Art phone preamp can push the signal 75'.

leecreek said:

The ART Clean Box Pro is not, the way I read it, a phono preamp. It is a gender bender, line matcher for line level to balanced output. You would still need a regular pre-amp close to the turntable, as where the ART unit would sit.

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I have a Art phono stage... I was wondering if I could plug the Art phono into the Art Clean Box Pro, and run the balanced cables to my Yamaha cxa5100 preamp with 75' of balanced XLR cable.

That is great news, and made the speaker hookup easier...plus I will save hundreds of dollars.

The speakers will be about 12' apart. I was thinking of mounting kt next to the center channel..Which would never be on when listening to records. My other option would me to mount it close to the fireplace.

Wayne A. Pflughaupt said:

Generally not a good idea to locate a TT close to speakers. Crank it up to much and you can get feedback.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

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