Line Stage Preamps that blew you away $2500 Edition

I received the Audio GD HE 1 XLR preamp last week. I've had 4 days off from work and spent a couple hours a day listening to this preamp. My only other preamp I've had is the Don Sachs, latest version with the best caps Don uses. Also a great sounding preamp IMO. However, this Audio GD is something different. It is a touch softer sounding but not soft, maybe just a touch more organic. Dead quiet. Seriously. I didn't think it was on when I first turned it on. Just spacious, natural, detailed, dynamic. The Sachs is right there and fantastic, love the second RCA outputs for using a sub, love the form factor, the sound is alive and natural. The biggest difference to me is the Audio GD is dead, dead quiet and a touch more spacious. However, the Audio-GD has some quirks. First, its large and deep. It fits my cabinet but make sure it fits your space. Second, the remote isn't the most accurate. It's finicky on making visual contact with the preamp. The display is old school. For a premium product you'd think they could find a better looking display. The Sachs volume readout is much better and looks more contemporary vs. the 80's Seiko look of the display on the Audio-GD. Overall, the Sachs is better looking. May not matter to some, but for those with a WAF hurdle to navigate the Sachs looks more bespoke and is a potential conversation starter vs. the more austere looking Audio-GD. Also, when I dim the screen of the Audio-GD there's still one blue bar showing. When I cover it with electric tape it affects the remote's sensor. However, I love that the Audio-GD preserves the volume level on each input so I can volume match two inputs and then A/B on the fly. And, when it comes to sound I'd call it liquid gold. You can't really go wrong with either. Technically the Audio-GD HE 1 XLR is over $2500 but the solid state version is $2500, but might be worth the extra for the tubed XLR version.

Can’t recommend Rogue Audio highly enough, awesome sounding gear. 

I think you could put the Schiit Freya + on your list.  Quite a bit below your 2500 price range but if you put some nice tubes in it, it really comes to life.  I have both the Freya + with CBS Hytron tubes and the Benchmark LA4 and I prefer the sound of the Freya + with of course the tube circuit engaged.  

Popular opinion suggests a linestage should do little other than provide source switching and volume control. It should add/subtract nothing sonically, and just be a transparent conduit between a source and amplifier. That specification may or may not suit your system. If it does, then a Wyred 4 Sound STP SE with level 2 upgrade is the closest thing I’ve come across to achieving those goals.

It isn’t very sexy, but boy does it sound like nothing.

these days, with very pure sounding dacs using built in volume controls, it is very easy to test and hear the effect of a linestage interceding between source and power amp

there is no linestage, tube or ss, active or passive, that sounds like nothing - there is always a change, a difference

just like there is a difference if one changes the interconnects

it is never the same, one just needs to decide if the change is positive or negative for oneself