Matt I have no views either way on the Shanling, it's just that my local dealer sells them and I've heard them a few times, pretty well built personally I don't really like the look of them a bit fussy for my tastes but thought I would reccomend anyway as they had built in pre of sorts, still agree with WM though this would be a stopgap untill you could afford a pre, running a bare source without pre only works if done properly, the pre in the Wadias for example prolly cost more to make than the shanling cdplayers do, but the shanling stuff is good value all the same, they even have some monoblocks that have built in vol with remote, almost mono integrateds. Personally I would go s/h exdem, but made no reccomendations as I can't remember what has built in pre and what prices they go for S/H, obvious answer is some Wadias, but the good ones are a bit above your stated budget, others will be along to help, but I'd start a new thread if I were you.