I own same amps with the Music Culture mc-601 pre (former dsigner of MBL). This pre smoked the xp-20 and some others. This one will leave you with pletny of change from $8k budget.
I have a Dude. A few teething problems with Paul - like some superficial quality control - knobs not fitting, etc - but in the end he came through, fixed everything and it does sound spectacular.Best I've heard. And I've tried most of the top $8-12K preamps. The Dude and the CJ Premier 16L would be my two top 2 preamps.
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