The Yamaha is a nice preamp and a really good price and it is on my short list as well. The AV8801 is at the top but so is its price. I would really like to see how the emotive xmc-1 works out should it actually ever see the light of day. I just received a Antimode 8033s II and will try it this weekend and make my first attempt at using the room correction portion of REW . If I find there is an improvement I will move up to a mini dsp eventually. If I can take the sub eq out of the equation that will change which pre I choose. I am sure it will be great, I read some great magazine reviews about it.
