Best Tubed Preamp For A Warm, Rich Sound, Yet Still Detailed and Agile

In my 45 year of searching for SQ improvement, I personally recommend Don Sachs preamp, which you can obtain for under $2K.   It is based on 6SN7 tubes and it is much more revealing and detailed than the Modwright preamp that it replaced, which itself was outstanding.  Check out the Forum for my review of it and comments of other owners. Here is Don Sachs' website:    http://www.dsachsconsulting.com/custom%20line%20stage.html

BTW, anybody that uses 6SN7 tubes in their gear that hasn't tried the Shuguang Treasure CV181-Z tubes is not hearing all that their equipment is capable of rendering. To my ears, and those of Don Sachs, they better all the NOS tubes around, save for the uber pricey ones.  They are robust and appear to have some longevity.  Try them and I am sure you will agree. 

Strange that the Coincident Statement Linestage isn’t on the list. For nearly half your price range for a second hand unit, this is one of the most direct tube preamplifier on the market: 101D triode (the Western Electric Replica PSvane) directly heated, external power supply, not any other active component on the signal way. It use some japaneese occ mumetal transformers in and out for the volume control, symetrical and non symetrical connections. New it is on your price range, and the transformers are actually better than some years ago.

Use it with the best A class solid state power amplifier(s) you can find (that would give you the hot touch, drive , rich timbre and transparency). The preamp will give high level transparency, resolution, fludity, air, soundstage deepness.

The Ypsilon PST100 may be a good upgrade to the Coincident Statement Linestage in the same phylosophy of transparency and musical involvment, but the price is a bit different....

I don’t really agree with some that say we can’t have resolution and beauty at the same time. A real high resolution may be partnered with beauty, if the audio gears are stressless, but not bottlenecks (and the room / speakers partnership effective). In this price range, it would be a shame to have bottlenecks. And for me, a too cold but high resolution solidstate preamp is... a bottleneck as it fail to give any musical implication. But of course, a chain of gain stages like dac, preamp and power amp, are and addition of works on the modulation wave, and an opportunity to try to give some extra heart touching capabilities, that make the music a bit extra-ordinary although the scheme and component may keep the transparency and resolution as high as possible.

Of course, no doubt that there are many good preamps in the world, sure I would be happy with many preamps that are spoken about here... everybody have his own pearl on mind... different of the neighbour one....

Regards, Nico.

Hey Nightfall; As you know, there are so many options available today it can make you crazy, but each of us must speak only from direct experience. There are several in this chain who have pointed you in the direction of Cary's SLP-05 ..... well, I'm hear to tell you they are right. I purchased one in September '16 and it replaced a McIntosh (MAC) C-46. Use whatever parameter you wish; transparency, soundstage/depth, detail/resolution without the etchiness, focus, transient dynamics and weight ... and all of this with that "warmth & liquidity" you seek. All of these things improved with the Cary and in most, improved significantly. The gains were (are) anything but subtle. And the guy who partnered his Cary with an Esoteric SS amp .... he's got the right idea .... my Cary is wired to my MAC MC 302 stereo amp. Can't say what is it about a tubed pre and SS power amp .... but the marriage is truly glorious. Are there other pre amps that will fit the bill? Sure, but from experience I can tell you that your journey does not have to be that long. Give the Cary serious consideration.

There are several in this chain who have pointed you in the direction of Cary's SLP-05 ..... well, I'm hear to tell you they are right.

I'm curious as to if all the folks recommending the Cary SLP-05 have read this comment from the OP:

The amplifier that I will be using the preamp with is superb, but not well known, which is why I failed to mention it earlier. It is the Wells Audio Innamorata, which is single ended with an amplifier input impedance of 50k ohms.

I'm not sure that the SLP-05 is any better than the SLP-98 if you can not run it in balanced mode.
Not to mention the point that Al (almarg) pointed out regarding the SLP-05's output impedance:

While the description of the Innamorata at the Wells Audio website as well as in various reviews indicate its input impedance as 50K, its manual indicates 30K. I don’t know which number is correct, of course, but 30K would be somewhat marginal (or worse) for use with several of the preamps that have been suggested. For example, Stereophile measured the 20 Hz output impedance of the Lamm LL2 at 3.3K, and the 20 Hz output impedance of the Cary SLP-05 at 3.4K, both of which would be just barely acceptable in conjunction with a 30K load, IMO.

This post is a great vehicle for people to pump their favorite preamps, which is great.  However, to actually reach your objectives, you might need a wider view.  Two points I'd make:

(1) In my humble experience, you can only get so much of the tube feel out of the preamp part of the equation.  It's there, but you get the real tubey bang for your buck out of the power amp part of the equation.  So you might consider that budget applied to a tube power amp instead.  This is where the real liquid turbiness comes in, I have found.  Or consider a full-tube integrated.  OR a tube input stage hybrid power amp with a SS output stage.  All of those may give you the full tube experience more than a preamp alone.

(2) I don't mean to say that you don't get good tubiness out of a preamp.  But if you go this way, save a substantial portion of the budget for the tubes.  The hardware is obviously important too, but if you really want to enjoy the whole experience, you'll need some nice new old stock options to play with -- Mullard, Telefunken, the usual suspects, etc.  There are some nice options at Upscale Audio, and Kevin Deal may be able to guide you to both hardware and tubes, but your mileage may vary with Kevin.

Good luck!