What's a contender to an Audio Reference 5 SE?

@lak 
Many thanks!  That's the kind of information I'm looking for!

@bo1972 
You win the contest for the most words but not very helpful advice.  Except that you don't like Audio Research.

If he thinks a Ref-5 se is a low quality pre-amp. I can't imagine what he would say about my LS-27.

Before upgrading amps I used my Symphonic Line "The Enlightenment" with a Plinius SB-301, and that combo was very nice.

Well first of all, the input impedance of your Plinius amp is 47K Ohms which should be benign to even the weakest tube preamps. In my opinion, with your Plinius amp I would just go for a Vac Renaissance Mk3 & upgrade the tubes. Kevin Hayes has a nice collection of NOS tubes in his own 'Vac store' & is always happy to provide his wealth of knowledge. I think the Vac would be a good match sound-wise & imho, anything more is overkill and I would just buy a killer integrated instead like a Vitus SIA-025, Gryphon Diablo 300 or JRDG Daemon.

@melbguy1 Many thanks for your post, and I was even keeping up with you pretty good, until you started suggesting integrated amps?  I already have an amp.  If I have misunderstood you please forgive me.  Sometimes I'm a bit slow on the uptake.  :-)