What are the more subtle sounding tube preamps?

I have to disagree that the Classic 2 is dark.....its well balanced and very lifelike and dynamic in my system....  its anything but dark. 

The only downside is that it has no remote, in terms of sound quality it is a sleeper and should be auditioned.  Im willing to bet that most people talking about it on forums have never heard it and are slamming it becausd it lacks features that you come to expect.   

I listened to my pre in what looked to me like a $50k system and that was all i needed......it sounded great in a system where the associated components were many times its price.

I should have noted my unit is a 2SE

The Rogue Audio will give you the great dynamic range combined with tube smoothness that's not overly tubey.  I had the Hera II for a number of years and it was the best I had (unfortunately had to downgrade due to space limitations).    The new Rp-7 is balanced and rp-5 unbalanced and are both excellent compared to anything listed on this thread.  Pairing with the m-180s or the Hydra/Medusa hybrids is amazing.  The best bang for your buck unless you want to spend 3x to 4x money.  Also hand made in USA.  My 2 cents...

+1 for Rouge
I still have - and it still performs and sounds as beautiful as ever - a 30 something years old, Audible Illusions Modulas II. It's not in my system at this time, only because I'm currently using a integrated tub amp, but still use it on occasion, when auditioning a new power amp or rotate my ADCOM back into service. In it's 30+ years of service, I've changed out the tubs only twice and have had 0 service issues. It's  smooth, detailed and full, without adding the bloat or tubby-ness associated with some of the 80s tubes. it's overall neutral character and decent phono stage makes it a good pre. for auditioning associated power amps and players.
There are, no doubt, many finer and certainly more expensive units out there and (even though you wouldn't know to listen) is past due to have re-caped and serviced, I'm inclined to hang on to this little gem for a few more years....
Jim

I own CJ ET5 wonderful not to tubed but very musical and open sounding.I have had many tube preamps over the years such as Arc SP8,SP15,Throess etc the CJ is very accurate and not overly tubby.Good luck