Tube Preamp

When was the last time you auditioned speakers?  

I'm a Freya/Loki owner (does that sound like an AA confession?), and wrote a little review of the Loki here when I first bought it...I'm a long time live sound engineer and musician, and consequently an irrational snob here and there who dislikes DSP (me and Steve Guttenberg it would seem) and the Loki is astonishingly transparent...no clicks or noise when engaging it, basically no impact on anything until Knob Turner arrives. And the Freya is also sort of amazing regardless of it's "so cheap it's irrelevant" cost, with more inputs and outputs including balanced than most anything out there, and 3 operating options with a remote that allows you to scroll through those options...I prefer the higher gain tubes as my little single ended tube amp needs some prodding, although it could all be a conspiracy to get me to buy a lot of 6SN7GTBs...if so it worked. Also, I can't imagine a better power supply would make the Loki work better, as it's so good as is.

I would recommend Aric Audio. Aric's products are simply fantastic. I purchased his Unlimited pre a few months back. All I can say is,WOW! I have it paired with a First Watt F5,Nola Boxer 2's with some pretty impressive results. (At least to my ears) Aric has a few different pre's to choose from. He is also great to deal with. 

VTL TL-2.5 or TL-5.5 series 1
Pure tube - not hybrid
Read the reviews

I just upgraded from the 2.5 to the 5.5 after having my 2.5 since 97.
My TL-2.5 is listed locally with Amperex Bugle Boy tubes

This is easy.  Build or buy pre-assembled one of the top line models from tubes4hifi.com

You don't say whether or not you have a turntable.  If you don't, then get the SP14.  Preassembled and tested it is $1350 plus shipping, well within your budget.   Or build the kit for $960.  There's a level of enjoyment you get from building your own that nothing else can match.

If you need to have a phono preamp section, you could build one the outboard phono preamps they have, or do like I did and get the SP13 with their PH12 phono preamp.   The board sizes along with the chassis space determines what is possible.  The SP13 and SP14 are the same circuit, but have different, but electrically equivalent tubes.  The SP13 uses 6CG7 tubes and the SP14 uses 6SN7 tubes.

My SP13 is as good as any tube preamp I've ever heard, and it cost me a lot less than most all of the hi-end tube preamps.  It's certainly the equal of a Mac C22 or Marantz 7.