Looking to upgrade my preamp - suggestions?

Yes, Im sure room treatment would help too, but I am pretty limited in what I can/will do there as I am in a NYC rental apartment. Certainly the room layout is far from ideal. The speakers in my system are designed for tight front wall setups and for listening I cover up the TV with a heavy wool blanket which helps some. Side walls are completely uneven (the side wall opposite the sofa is a built in kitchen) so no point trying to treat just 1 wall. On cords and other things I have experimented a bit. Replaced the 12AT7s with Telefunken ECC801s which made a big difference over the OEM tubes. Im sure the room is 50% of the problem though - no arguement there.

Latinsamba1, I thought the following information would be something interesting now that you mentioned you like Connie-J and ARC gear.

Mike Wright, a reviewer on the website stereotimes, wrote the following regarding the Eklipse's performance compared with CJ ACT2 preamp. "During the time that I had the Eklipse in my system, I also had on hand the ACT2 Series 11(He mentions three other preamps). The ACT2 was the class of the bunch with the Eklipse a step below it. But when I put RCA clear top tubes in the Eklispe, it bested the competitors, including the CJ ACT2. I had a lot of listening sessions with friends over this period of time, and each reached the same conclusion.

Don't get me wrong, I was in serious lust for the ACT2 and, up to that point, was prepared to call it the best preamp to ever grace my listening room. But the Eklipse eclipsed(pardon the pun)the ACT2's performance, and at less then a third of the price to boot. The amount of realism and lifelike dynamics, and the ability to communicate the music was a step beyond what the other preamps on hand were doing."

I also auditioned a ARC Ref3 in my system and found, for me, the Eklipse the better sounding preamp for almost $7000.00 less. The Eklispe is not the worlds greatest preamp, but offers performance way above its price point.

If your concerned about resale value, they sell almost as soon as someone puts them on the GON. So, unless your heart is set on either a Connie J or ARC piece you still might consider an audition.

Not even close: Shindo Augieres line stage, $2.2K used, sell some of your JPS wire and get a matching Shindo IC, $350 used when you can find it, look at some Kondo copper speaker cable, $500 for 8ft/pr...that will put you on the next level.

I got to try an Audio Research LS 17 that belongs to a good friend and it sounded very good. I not in to tubes too much anymore, I found my self trying different tubes and it started to get in the way of just listening to music. I just bought a Pass Labs XP 10 from Reno Hifi and I find it to be extremely transparant provided you have the corect power cord. Another good pre-amp was one that another friend brought over was an Allnic L4000 and it was one of the best preamps I have ever heard. It was one of best I have tried in my system! I have heard that changing the tubes and or both modifying & changing tubes you can make the Manley Shrimp into a giant killer.

I'm thinking either a CJ 17LS2 or the ARC LS-26 at this point. Someone here mentioned matching the input impedence of my amps to the output impedence of the preamp? Not really sure how to determine which preamps would be suitable on that basis. I understand that you need a certain amount of gain but what is the ideal impedence range?

On the Shrimp, I agree that changing the tubes made a big difference. With the stock 12AT7 tubes the Shrimp sounded fine but upgrading to Mullard CV4024 and finally a pair of Telefunken ECC801s really kicked things up a notch. I like the look of the Manley Neoclassic gear actually, and their 300b preamp has gotten good reviews. Might be worth considering that preamp too I suppose.