Your gonna get alot of opinoins so get ready!
Alot comes down to personal taste so the best thing is to try as many as you can get your hands on.
My personal favorite in that range is the Mindprint Envoice.It has sweepable bass,mid and treble EQ's,compression and a Tube that suprisingly doesn't sound bad on a cheaper pre(tubes in this range usually suck)but i dial in the saturation for some really pleasing tones.It works great for me but your mileage may vary.If you can spring for a little more money im sure across the board the new RNP that everyone is talking about would be reccomended by everyone here.
Good Luck!

Depends on what you are looking for. If you want crystal clear with a lot of range then I would pick the DMP3 from M-Audio. The unit is under $200.

If you want a single channel slightly warmed (tube) sound then try the Studio Project VTB-1 around $179.

If you want an overdriven compressed sound i.e. Nirvana etc. then go with a Joe Meek.

Most others in this range are either too noisey or don't stand up to the above. There is a good link from a guy who tested alot of low end mic pres here: http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=62537b9e0832660ab33cf2c89aec5258&threadid=56463

If you step up your budget a few hundred dollars, I would look at the RNP mentioned above or the Grace 101. These are around $500. The RNP has not shipped yet but from initial word may be the best thing under $500. :cool:

I have an EnVoice and a dbx 286A next to a Focusrite Octopre...and for some things the Mindprint and dbx are better choices.

I found that replacing the tube with a JAN 5751 (super quality, lower gain) works very well. Makes the saturation less about attitude and more about quality.

K