Line Stage Preamps that blew you away $2500 Edition

AUDIO HUNGARY APR 204 - GREAT,GREAT - DID I SAY GREAT TUBE PRE FOR $2.5K

Used Audio Research LS-25 MKII, bought several years ago for $2500. Last one I need to buy.

I had an Allnic L-4000, dead quiet, holographic, great  low end.

I too do not like transformer coupled passives. I have been using the Luminous Audio Axiom passive unit ( his very top of the line ) now for 4 years or so. I was into passive years ago with products from P.S.Audio, Mod Squad, and many others. For whatever reason, I felt these lacked something. I owned 2 hi end preamps ( at the time 6K ea. at retail, 1 tube and1 ss ). I also have a few RGR preamps, Hitachi ( do not laugh ), Soundcraftsmen, Hafler, Yammi, Citation, AGI, and maybe a few others ( some modified, all heavily chassis damped ), all working great. But, no cigar. I do not hear my Luminous in the system. The internal chassis is damped with Dynamat ( every preamp / passive known to man, can use some internal damping ). I damp everything.......tuning the component is involved. My dac feeds into the Luminous,single ended, and it works out great with whatever amplifier I choose to listen to from my collection. Short, simple signal path; great parts; Khosmo system; extremely well damped; nice readout; did I mention, I do not hear it. I do not hear it. If this is what you want and if it works for you ( contact them, he impedance matches to your gear ( and can change it at a later date for a small fee ) to match to a new amp ). Highly recommended. Great people. Enjoy !

@mrdecibel interesting. I don’t claim to be technically proficient but I’m curious as to what it was about the transformer coupled designs you didn’t like.

as for “do I want a passive” the answer is I dont know. I, personally don’t care about fidelity and neutrality as much as musicality and “it just sounds good to me”. My attraction to tubes is that I can color the sound to how I like it, but the b*tch about tubes is that they aren’t cheap and wear out.

I mentioned Hattor upstream as it had both passive and active stages. The active stages had low gain (I have way too much) and I thought that being able to remove the attenuators would be a good thing.