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


As the title says, I am looking for an exceptional preamp (obviously tubed) with warmth and liquidity, some of that golden glow, in the midrange and highs. I do not want slowness, or lack of detail, however. My budget is up to $6,000.00, for a used model. 

Based on my research, many of those that might make the list are very rare to find, and other recommendations would be greatly appreciated. 


nightfall
Sometimes less is truly is more. I still have and sometimes put into use a thirty something year old Audible Illusions Modulus II. I recent had it re-tubed and checked over. It still performs and sounds as wonderful as ever when paired with good equipment and quality recordings. For a couple of months I had it paired with a Ayre V-5 XE Evolution and the sound, on good recordings, was beautiful - very open and detailed without being harsh and was smooth and musical without being overly full of bloom. It just sounded like music. Good music doesn't always have to cost a fortune, but keep in mind if you are planing to run RCA or Balanced. Many of the older Tubed pre-amps did not have a balanced circuit option.
Good luck,
Jim


I second the Don Sachs preamps. Also, he is an honorable person to deal with.
CJ ET5 used wonderful will do everything you want and more get one asap!!!!
As far as detail like a SET amplifier a Direct Heated Triode Preamplifier 
Has only 1 stage ,most preamplifiers gave 2-3:stages.
My preamp,,and latest being built use for one parts quality night and day better then 90% of Any commercial units which only 20- 25 % of the cost actually  go 
To the parts . With custom  builds 60% and fir less money's. 
My new preamp has 4 Lundahl  chokes for ultimate filtering and 3 Transformers also Lundahl and Heybourer which are all custom built.all transformer coupled 
Is much more Accurate then any Capacitor coupled. The key for a Exceptional
DHT preamp is the experience.  I compared mine to Coincident loaded with 
Inexpensive capacitors for coupling.  It s 101 tube is good but not as linear
As the 4P1L tube just do a search. It can be a bit microphonic if not isolated properly with mine not an issue,  and power supply only 4pole capacitors
All bypassed by Munforf Silver oil caps. For around  $4k with the excellent 
Khozmo remote control.  Research where uour money is going. I have had  no less then 10 conventional preamps . The only down side is speaker efficiency under 95db, and amplifier again  Radu Tarta  is the well known DHT builder who also 
Built me a a Class A Dual monoblock Pass labs clone with reference grade parts.