Looking for a preamp with XLR connections

To the OP,

Be wary of what you read on the ASR forum. It’s quite apparent that many, if not most of them have little experience with high quality/audiophile-grade components. They like to hang their hat on SNR, THD and IMD specs because doing so enables them to be satisfied with cheap products. What’s even worse is that they’re not the least open-minded to the possibility that maybe researchers don’t yet fully understand how some measurement parameters
translate to what we perceive, or that there could be performance variables we’ve yet to learn we can/should measure.

I’ve owned a few of their measurement darlings. Some are good, some are great, and some are completely underwhelming. For example, the Benchmark AHB2. It’s a nice amp but I prefer the inferior measuring Parasound A21 and Pass XA25 amplifiers by a significant margin. OTOH, I have yet to hear a preamp I prefer to Benchmark’s LA4. The Topping D90 was a nice DAC but the higher noise and distortion Denafrips Ares II is better to my ears. At the end of the day, we should only care about which products bring us the greatest musical enjoyment.

My original series Freya is VERY quiet (no discernible hum using NOS GE tubes, and trust me, I hate noisy gear) and Stereophile agreed with that assessment sticking it in its "Class A" recommendations. It tested fine in that review...To say otherwise is BLASPHEMY...it also sounds great with my adorable Pass XA-25 which is also a very quiet amp. A ridiculously affordable bargain for a superb little preamp...utterly recommended.

The Freya S got an excellent review at ASR. The no tube model. Cost less, too. The first one reviewed had a defective board.

Mola Mola Makua. Upper end of your range. End game component. Maybe find one pre-owned. There was one here on agon that got snapped up. Pretty much as good as it gets without requiring a second mortgage to obtain.

The person that started this thread said "no tubes". Why all the suggestions of tube preamps??