Looking for a preamp with XLR connections

The Benchmark LA4 is closest to a “straight wire with gain” that I’ve heard.

No need to spend more if your goal is ultimate transparency and neutrality.

I owned the Freya+ for a time. I tried rolling many NOS tubes in an attempt to hear what all the fuss was about, but alas, it always sounded best in passive mode.

The Freya+ was quite transparent in passive form but the LA4 takes it to another level that I didn’t really think was possible. Remarkably, it doesn’t sound cold or clinical in the process.

Consider an Holo Audio Serene KTE for around $3200. Outstanding measurements to satisfy ASR and extremely neutral. Parts and build quality are top notch! 

Hard to go wrong with a Benchmark LA4 if looking for a silent transparent balanced solid state preamp.  

We've been doing balanced line preamps for home audio longer than anyone else. We did it because if you support the balanced line standard, you can get off of the interconnect cable game and not have to worry about their 'sound'.

It didn't occur to us to not support the standard. But that has become very common in high end audio today; whether by choice or ignorance of the standard I can't tell.

But if the preamp supports the standard you won't have to worry about interconnects. So when looking at a preamp, ask the manufacturer if the preamp supports AES48 which is the balanced standard.

LA4 is AES48 compliant.