Line Stage Preamps that blew you away $2500 Edition

Linear Tube Audio MZ2 is by far the best preamp I’ve heard in that price range.  And that’s with the stock 12sn7’s.  

@gochurchgo 

“Thanks and thats interesting. I fear that passives will leave the cold.”

It should leave “mostly “ what’s there and not add or subtract. Sounds like you want to “adjust” your sound. Not all passives are created equal, by topology or component quality. As with most things..  

I’ve owned amps and sources where a passive would be a detriment, but my current amp sounds best with a passive. Trial and error.. and some money.. 

@mikem  I don't disagree.

I don't care about fidelity or neutrality, I care about sounding "good" to my ears. The problem with any preamp. passives included is that its a stab in the dark. I can't seem to find my SYS (may have loaned it out and forgot about it) as I wanted to run it and see, overall, what things sound like. I can tell you that in my current tubed stage, the warmest tubes I've had (Mullard 4024's) were my favorite and even the 6201's (slightly less warm) were less engaging for me. So it seems to me that my system is neutral to cool excluding the line stage (although my amp is known to be on the warm side) and that the warmest its sounded was the happiest I was with it.

So at this point I am contemplating buy another SYS (hate to do that obviously) to get a feel for what the overall tonality is (though yes I know it isn't matched to my components or have transformers so will be dry and thin to a degree). I can say for certain that extreme low gain/unity gain/passive is where I'm headed as I have way too much again already. Outside of that I am falling down the rabbit hole with speed.

@jackd

Thanks kindly for the comparative insight between the Sachs and Supratek preamps. In reading all the great reviews previously I was really tempted to try a Sachs pre. Your observations align with others I’ve heard.

@gochurchgp

Jack is correct, the Supratek it’s adjustable gain. What makes a Suprtek pre stand out is it dynamics, PRAT, body and palpability. It just more real than most in this price range. Plus it does not lay poor recordings threadbare. As Mark indicated, the music will just grab you and you’ll be fully emotionally engaged, tap your toes and forget about the equipment.