a cheap 148 is what this crowd wants. everything else is already available.
Yeah, I've been thinking that as well. The 2 main needs I see is good price/performance level in a stealth level preamp, or a lower cost/higher availability transformer pre (m148).
On the transformer pre side you've got the Neve portico ($$$), or you've got the m148/PSP2/Aerco MP2, none of which are too easy to come by. Then you've got the SD MP2/mixpre which isn't the best sounding transformer pre around. So the transformer realm seems like a market.
If you start to go into full size/full functionality, you've either got to top or compete with the high-end pres -- V2/V3, portico, MMP, etc. Or you need to provide more value and price/performance capabilities than the mod UA5's, and for that matter the ACM 671 and ACM HDP2.
Which seems to leave room for a modUA5 type of preamp that is in a stealth size, not full size, ie, good performance and value in a small size package. What's there now -- Sonosax, SD MP2, Aerco MP2, Nbox, JKLabs DVC, PSP2/PSP3, what else? Seems like these are either hard to come by or not meeting expectations.