Advice on a preamp for DIY upgrade plz

[Fivetide]

I have finished my first project .. the CMOY tutorial and now I have the bug ..badly , at the moment all my sound goes through my Sony AV. It’s ok I suppose does what it says on the box. I have stored in the garage a set of RTL TDL2’s mk1’s and a ROTEL RA972. I do have a QED preamp but this just makes a loud cracking noise when I switch it on and the speakers buzz continuously .. I’ve searched all over looking for my amp on google etc to see if it was ever rated or worth stripping and replacing parts.. but cant.. however the rotel has some great reviews for such a low cost amp that i will keep it and upgrade it.
Can anyone recommend a preamp that will be good to upgrade and not to expensive to get 2nd hand.. my budget is £200 for buying refurbishing ?
Or a preamp design that would be within that budget that’s not going to be massively complicated?
And the stage after I will be upgrading the RTL’s there’s quite a lot of material out there for doing it.

[AndrewT]

If you don't need extra system gain, then consider a buffer rather than a pre-amp.
The Pass B1 is an excellent buffer and the DCB1 version is also good.

The Pass has provision for two stereo inputs and a volume control.
The Hyp DCB1 has provision for one stereo input.
The Mez DCB1 has provision for six stereo inputs and a volume control.

For volume control, start with a cheap plastic track stereo log law 10k pot.
Then consider what you might want to try to improve on that. Try the LED/LDR attenuator.

[Fivetide]

The Qed dosnet have a volume control.. it just has a on/off switch the Rotel has the vol control
I might stick with the qed and simply replace all the parts with advice from the forum.. same for the Rotel .. I have a ARCAM 200 av with a blown power supply I might salvage from that .. dont know .. all look alot of fun

[AndrewT]

I'm suggesting you give away the QED & the Rotel.
Or use the chassis as a basis for something useful.

[Fivetide]

Yep .. thats a much better idea

Any suggestions Andy of what to fill the chasis with ?

[AndrewT]

The little QED could become your buffer case.
The big Rotel could become a Power Amplifier.

[Fivetide]

I may go for something like this

DIY Stereo Audio Power Amplifier Kit fr QUAD405 | eBay