Line Stage Preamps that blew you away $2500 Edition

@gochurchgo 

I recently purchased a Music First Audio TVC passive. I had one custom made to order since I wanted more attenuation steps and no input selection control using the latest version of his Transformers.  I have had  a Django TVC based on the TX102 transformers for 20 years now. It’s been mostly  shelved for the last 8 years or so in favor of active preamps. My latest active preamp cost me $10k as I was determined to get one that would be “stunning” and long lived in my system. 
That lasted 8 months when I swapped it out to try a passive with my new amp. 
While the Django had it faults, some ringing on certain frequencies.. it still managed to sound more natural and bettered my active. So I looked into other passives, autoformers, stepped attenuation and even put my Schiit Freya+ back in the system for its passive mode and buffered stage..  I love the Freya+ for its versatility, but it was still lacking in transparency compared to the Django..  after many conversations with MFA’s Jonathan Billington in England, He offered me a solution that would better my Django in an even more minimalistic way. So I purchased the MFA TVC and have been overjoyed with the results. The TVC handles balanced in and provides SE out to my amp. Matches impedance loads, simply lets the music through and doesn’t color the sound. Everything is more natural sounding, nothing added or rounded off..   Very pleased ! 
My amp only provides 11.5db of gain, So I use the balanced out of my DAC for more voltage out and bypassing the summing of the op amps to SE. Better sound all the way around.. also cost me 1/3 the price of my last active pre.. Passives aren’t for everyone, but with the proper system matching..  they’re unbeatable regardless of the price..  IME.. 

2 come to mind. The second I would likely not have known about except that the Hattor dual mono passive pre with remote that I had did not come with a gain stage. I could order it, but I did not feel comfortable to do the install, so reluctantly, I sold it. BUT, I came across a Audio Alchemy DDP-1 (which has a built in DAC) for $895. It took about 4 months to track down the optional PS5 power supply $600, which was/is money well spent as it transformed it.

Prior to the Hattor, I had been using my Oppo 105 variable VC direct to amp for both CD and SACD. CDs sounded amazingly better through the AA dac, and the AA has XLR inputs, meaning CD and SACD are  switchable via the remote

Had I kept the Hattor I would have gotten a DAC which would have cost as much as the AA, so win-win for me

hth

hth

CJ Classic II

Into a Krell KST 100. Good sound but given mismatch in output/input need attenuators in front of the Krell inputs. (Recommended by a CJ tech).

Current CJ replaced an old CJ PV 10A. Interestingly, both purchased new suffered a blown tube within a couple of weeks.

Another vote for Khozmo/Hattor.  Arek's latest passive using reed relays as opposed to a stepped potentiometer is fantastic (Takman REX/AMRG resistors) .  My former passive was a Slagle/Intact audio autoformer pair (a fine sounding unit in its own right).  My last active pre was a Berning ZOTL Pre One.  I have used Berning amplifiers for the past 25 years.  

@tweak1 @palasr Yes the Hattor is very interesting. Passive and gain stage., I am very seriously considering this as well as the Denafrips Athena and Holo Serene. The Athena really excites me after reading more into it. Its a buffer with unity gain. The bummer is I'm all single ended (although my DAC is a $100 Topping so getting the same one with XLR is not a huge deal as I don't listen hard to it, its for TV and Movies).

I am probably not going the tube route as I have too much gain so a buffer stage and/or unity gain seems the way to go.