Line Stage Preamps that blew you away $2500 Edition

looks nice but no gain, no thanks.  

@tyray yes my system has had way too much gain (99db speakers) so I didn’t need any more. The unity gain works great and is dead quiet. That’s a first for me. The 12db attenuators are out of the system. It goes louder than I can play it so I’m good with that. The sound is very much like 6 Moons described, it doesn’t emphasize the attack but rather the sustain which gives it a more natural, analog sound vs the more common attack focused sound. It takes getting used to for sure. It reminds me of when I moved on from my then current interconnects and went to Audio Envy Studio Prestige. My first thought was they were rolled off, but listening more reveals they aren’t , they just don’t accentuate them.

Still early days but it sounds the way I thought it would, which is full bodied, fast, detailed but with a more natural feel. It’s also smooth and to be honest I never wanted a smooth sound but I have to admit that the rest of the system is “in your face” so it works. Last night after my post I sat up for a few hours spinning some new discs (Johnny Marr’s The Messenger, Cool World OST, Dave Stewart & The Spiritual Cowboys, Pylon’s Gyrate, The Ocean Blue’s Cerulean and Iggy Pop’s Free) and it’s a sound I like. I can see the sound not being a favorite around here so I waited for a used one knowing it’s a polarizing piece.

it goes good with the Odyssey power amp and it’s muscular tone and I suspect it would also be good with more midrange centric amps as well.

For reference my system is as follows:

Schiit Modius (balanced)

technics SL1200GR (w/KAB fluid damper) + Nagaoka MP-150 w/200 stylus

Sutherland 20/20 MKI (single ended)

Denafrips Athena

Odyssey Khartago (w/many upgrades)

Klipsch Heresy 4’s

Rythmik L-12 Subs (2)

single ended cables are Audio Envy Studio Prestige

balanced cable is Amazon (temp until O’Nestians arrive)

Morrow SP-4 speaker cables (will be replaced with AE in a few months)

Quite some time ago, but the Joule Electra LA-100 completely dusted preamps I had at the time (including a beastly two-box First Sound Presence(?)).

The Joule was just warm and sweet and dimensional and organic and ’set the notes free’ vs. the clinical sounds of most of the $2500 preamps at the time. Made me realize that the preamp may be the most important component in a system.

I still have two of the units (picked up a spare I found for cheap) which I circulate in an out of a couple of systems. True music making boxes. RIP Judd and MaryAnn.