Moving Up from a Jolida JD9

A used Tavish Adagio will be in your budget, if you can find one.

I would put it as just a bit below a Modwright PH9.0 (which I have and was able to compare with the Adagio; I sold mine for $1600).

I used the Adagio with my VPI Prime.  It made my Darlington Labs MP-7 sound SS.

Maybe a Rogue Audio Ares? And of course the EAR834.

I think if you stay with no feedback/discrete designs you should be good to go.

+1 on the Tavish. Also recommend the Hagermann Trumpet MC 

slovell,

I moved from a modded JD-9 (Burson op amps/Jupiter caps/NOS 12AX7s) to an E.A.T. E-Glo Petit and it was huge improvement, both in sonics and convenience. Like theflattire, I’ve since moved on to a Modwright PH 9.0X, but that’s in a completely different league; if I hadn’t gotten a great deal on the Modwright I could have been totally happy with the E-glo for years.

Thanks everyone. You've given me a lot to research and I do appreciate it. I'll get back to all of you after I've read up on what's been mentioned.
Regards,
Sam

I definitely recommend going used, that can put you another level up.