Sonic Frontiers Preamps - Cold & thin?

Yes, to keep it short, amazing (given the parts qualtiy involved) that my frequent auditions (dealer friend who carries line) have consistently found these--and not ony MY ears here--to be exactly as claimed: cold, clinical and not "tubey" sweet at all....but cold and clinical, and as you mention...thin. Of course, system matching can undoubtedly emeliorate this negative aspect of the sf equipment...but is it really worth it at this price point to be building "tone control" components to make these better in your system? Is it any wonder, given their advertising, product line, etc. that they haven't sold more? In last audition, even solid state gear (but not Classe, which sounds similar in many of their components in their product line @ same price point) sound not unlike the SF gear. Worst tube equipment I've auditioned...but as I mentioned above, system dependent. Caution: no matter how many ancillary items we used with the SF amps, preamps, andCd players, they tended to retain the same signature. Found they worked OK...not spectacular, with the dark Sonus Faber Extremas only...brightening (in the best sense of the word) this particular speaker system. Sorry

I had a similar experience with the SF Anthem line. I think system matching is the answer. In my case at the time I was looking to upgrade my preamp, so the Anthem was not a match. I have heard them (SF and Anthem) in systems where they sounded great!

Just purchased a Anthem pre 2L and don't have the same conclusions as above. This pre has a bold non tubey sound. I am using a Aragon 4004 and Krestral spkrs. I think the anthem is a lot of bang for the buck and with the Marsh(just auditioned)amp this pre really did stut it's stuff.