Assorted digital source questions

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Hi all,
I just realized this is my first post... I have been lurking so long it seems strange.

I have a big ol' 1984 Toyota Land Cruiser (FJ60, for those that might care). I have a head unit and few speakers, but I live in the Columbia Gorge, and radio signal quality and content quality are limited here. I abandoned cd's as a mobile source a few years ago and committed to digital (I still have piles of vinyl for home use).

Now I want to create a simple digital based system for the truck, without involving the head unit. The why of this is a bit silly -- I like the head unit (a Clarion) because it's "period correct" for the truck and just looks right, but it doesn't support an aux input.

My ideal setup would be a preamp with a volume control, feeding through my vintage Marantz SA-230 into a pair of 4 ohm speakers. While that punches my goofy vintage buttons, the reality is the Marantz cannot drive enough volume to overcome the ambient cacophony of the LC. So, I still want the preamp with volume control, but I'll be driving a pair of amps, one pushing 4 coaxials, and another for a sub. I know someone is about to beat me with the "components are best" stick, but seriously -- it's a freaking Land Cruiser, it has the acoustics of an empty oil drum. I have a couple of quality component car speaker systems, and I installed one in the LC -- and it was indistinguishable from the 4 coax's.

Can anyone recommend a good preamp that will run on 10v-15v, RCA input, with a volume pot? Would a T-class amp be a good option, will they produce the input levels a car amp needs? I'm not shooting for incredible audiophile reproduction, but I do want it to sound good given the limitations of the environment.

Thanks!
Tony
 
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