Preamp Advice/experiences needed

My experience is that preamps are the most critical electronic component and really set the sonics of your system. I was finally able to afford a great tubed preamp twenty years ago and will never go back, I am a big fan of Audio Research and Conrad Johnson.

From what I know of your system, I definitely recommend on of those. Given your CJ… maybe start there. I really think there is a lot of synergy with the same components. I would spend as much as you can, and go used to further reduce cost. Preamps from these companies will last decades. If you put your system and venue under your ID, we can probably be of much greater help.

You can see my systems under my ID. I think you will find ARC more detailed than CJ… both incredibly musical.

I recently auditioned a Vac Renaissance Mk 5 and it was damn fine. But there are some issues I have with it that would not make it a great fit in my system

What issues did you have, and what improvements are you looking for over the VAC?

I do not recommend an Ayre preamp if you're not using it balanced, which I assume the CJ is not. Ayre optimizes their equipment for true balanced operation. I've used the KX-5 Twenty balanced and unbalanced, same with a non-Twenty version of the KX-R. The KX-R balanced was the best preamp I've ever used but it was better balanced. That was also with one of their amps so maybe it was synergy.