Thinking about buying a different tube preamp...

FWIW it sounds like the amp has too much gain.

You should not have to insert a passive control to set things right- and don't think for a minute that passive controls don't have an effect! If you can eliminate it you will get more immediacy and more impact.

We use tube preamps on speakers that have a good 12 db more efficiency than yours with no problems. So its my opinion that you have a matching problem or a noise problem at the input of the amp.

Did the Jolida have noise without the passive??

The SLP-98P is very nice. Only downside is that it uses 6SN7 tubes so tube-rolling will be expensive and difficult. I have 13,000 vintage 12AU7's and maybe 500 6SN7. They are about gone in the world of NOS. But the stock Chinese 6SN7 sound great.

If you can find a PrimaLuna DiaLogue Three that would rock. They rarely come up used. But from the standpoint of build and sound it will compete with the most expensive out there regardless of cost and it has only 10dB of gain using 12AU7's.

The Manley Chinook is the best phono stage I know of for under $3500. It sells new for $2250 (going up to $2400) and there was a dude selling a used one for $1799 I think if you look. If you shop hard for those two it may barely meet your budget.

Atmaspere, I'm going to experiment here a bit. Was going to wait until tomorrow, but why wait. Will post results in a bit.

Here's what I did. I re-connected the Jolida with the pvc removed and there is a little hiss, not real bad, but audible. Then I put the Modwright back in with the pvc removed as well. There is a hiss that is quite audible from my sitting position, around 10 to 11 feet away.
I contacted Dan Wright and he stated that the earlier models had more tube rush than the later models. I'm unsure as to which this one is, earlier or later.
The Classe monoblocks have a sensitivity of 1 volt in for the rated output. 29.02 dB gain and an input impedance of 75 Kohms.
The Jolida has an output impedance of 600 ohms, the Modwright 300 ohms.
I'm guessing the difference I'm hearing is just the type of the tubes being used in different configurations. The Jolida uses two 12AT7 tubes for power and two 12AX7's for the pre-amp. The Modwright uses a 5AR4/GZ34 rectifier tube and two 6SN7 signal tubes.