Dear Bruno,
The new transformer based preamps are very good in this regard, and offer very high value, especially when compared to the "High End" as represented by the print media. There is a preponderance of cheap volume controls out there even in the "best" preamps, little plastic pieces that wholesale for less than $10.00!
You might save a lot of money that can be used to buy some music...
I recently acquired a passive Slage-King autoformer based pre and am very happy with it. It replaced a $1K custom pre I had made, at about half the cost. It has one input, one output, as in applying the K.I.S.S. principle.
I do most of my listening in the wee hours, and lack of detail, especially microdynamics, would completely invalidate the use of anything that wasn't top shelf in this regard.
During the day, I will blast out some rock or classical, and dynamic range is not lacking either. Classic rock (Pink Floyd) to classical organ (Saint Saens), I am not disappointed. I am sometimes actually startled by music I thought I was quite familiar with!
For reference, let me state my amp is a custom made 3D Audio 300B, speakers are Ocellia 98db/1watt eficient Ocellias, with a Metronome Technologie DAC and various digital sources. One would never expect the dynanic capabilities this system exhibits with "only" 9 watts per channel.
Don't forget the extremely high markup for most audio products, due to marketing, severely affects their price/performance ratio.
Another possibility is a modification to your present preamp's power supply. If you are happy with it's sound, it just might benefit from some more "juice". This would affect both micro- and macrodynamics, especially of it manages to reduce your preamp's noise floor.
Just one man's opinion, but I hope this helps.
Best of Luck,
Ray
