old high end preamps..

I have a Mac C33 (ss) that I purchased new in 1984.  Still sounds great and offers fun and flexibility to experiment with various speakers and room configs.  Not appreciably better or worse than my 2 year old Primaluna DiaLogue (vt).

maybe an ALPS pot or stepped attenuator.

Just avoid using the ubiquitous ALPS Blue like the plague, or if you must use it with a shunt resistor.

Reviewers tend to remark on their presence in a preamp as a big plus (probably because they are made by ALPS, look good and they have never actually compared them to anything else), and their mythical status has thus prevailed.

Get a Stepped attenuator, or buy a TKD, Audionote or even a decent carbon (eg Tocos or ALPS) pot instead.

The old ALPS Black and Noble pots were actually quite good but sadly are no longer available.

The Metaxas preamps sound excellent.I owned a Marquis 2 for several years.Most older preamps are not very good.There are plenty of very good old power amps but modern preamps tend to sound a lot more transparent and 3D.

Muse 3 Signature is quite good, then and now. 

I used to own a conrad Johnson pv1,a tube preamp made in the 70's. Sold it to a a audiophile with a system worth over a hundred thousand dollars.  When he hooked it up and play it he was in dreamland . I replaced it with a modern parasound p5.  No yummf!!