$3500 to spend on a tube preamp....ideas?

I prefer the Lightspeed to my most recent tube linestages - CAT, Lamm, ARC, Dodd, and the excellent Joule LA150 Signature Edition - I would save the $3000. That being said, the Mapletree 2A SE $800 with the Blackgate Capacitor upgrade is very, very good compared to the other more expensive linestages I have own, what is best is that it not only uses the 6sn7 tube, my favourite in a line stage, but with the flip of a switch it can also use 12sn7s which run half the price of 6sn7 NOS and sound indentical as far as I can tell. Include separate tube regulated power supply!! I had to own the expensive stuff before I could believe in well engineered, less expensive gear - the Mapletree is very well designed and you can buy an awful lot of music with the difference in price. Still, to my ears, the $500 is the best I've heard with a single source. If you want to spend more, the Joule preamps are wonderful.

This is too easy. Shindo Aurieges.

My new favorite is a Joule preamp. You can look for a La-150 or if you need phono then a LAP-150 preamp. Make sure you buy one which can be upgraded to the SE version later or buy the SE version now. Not all 150s can be upgraded to SE version.

IMHO, a used CAT preamp will most likely open your eyes as to what a great tube preamp can do. A little hard to find, but if you can get an SL1 Sig with phono or one of the later models, VERY hard to beat, again IMHO.

I beleive it would have to be a Joule LA 150 MKII if wanted to upgrade to the SE version at a later date - taking an great preamp to start with and making it even better, most noticeably in bass performance, which is already first rate, which I preferred to my CAT SL1 Ultimate MKII (with Music Reference RM9SE and Merlin speakers - not sure which you would prefer though, system and taste could take you either way, both superb; but I would not hesitate to try the Mapletree because it is so much cheaper, it competes with the higher ticket preamps I have owned).