Good preamp with Merlin TSM speakers?

Bobby used to recommend the Joule Electra to me as well when I was a dealer. When I heard the deHavilland I dropped the Joule Electra line completely. Those stupid Russian " super " tubes suck........the life out of the sound. 

@soundsrealaudio Based on your comment, I see you are focusing on (and sounds like have only heard) the one version of the LA-150 (the MK1) line stage which was made for a couple years which used the 6H30 and the 6C45 tubes in the line stage. No, it was not Juds best preamp. Most of the Joule preamps out there use NOS 5751 and 6350's in the line stage (LA-100) or NOS 6350's (in the LA-150MKII line stage - which is not a Russian super tube, but a sweet American made dual triode form the 50's and 60's)... IMO these are Joule-Electra preamps which sounded best. These willl not sound like a UltraVerve (which is a good sounding preamp, just had one here for a checkup a few weeks ago), but are very good sounding preamps in their own right.

Cheers,
Rich

My Merlins are mmi version, serial numbers 4167 & 4168.

I'm not married to my ss monoblocks, in fact, I'd like to simplify providing I can achieve equal or better sound. Selling the amps, preamp and various wires would pay for the change.

With Master RC.

I have the TSM-MMM with master RC running with a Jolida 502a. Vintage tubes, Cardas cables. Could it be any sweeter? In my room this is an amazing set up.

db