Beautiful Colored Tube Preamp ($10k budget) to Pair w/ Very Accurate Monitors (PSI A25M)

Ming Da MC2A3 is very warm and tubey sounding.

As far as the Cary SLP05, I don’t consider mine to be all that warm. It could be the tubes I am running in the balanced input sockets, or the cables I am using, or another component in my system, but I felt replacing my old Cary SLP90 with the SLP05 cooled my system down but added air & detail/hence improving imaging.

Which is not to say that I do not like my ’05, just that I am not finding it extremely warm.

Yes I agree that the Cary is more neutral.Typical of a good 6SN7 preamp.Very good preamp .My brother owned one and I owned a Supratek Cabernet 300B.That sounded more tubey.Especially with meshplate 300bs.I preferred the Supratek but both are excellent.The Ming Da MC2A3 is more tubey again with a very SET like sound but bass can be a bit bloomy.With tight bass speakers like Gale 401s it matches well.

dejayos

Congratulations on the new preamp, the Motherlode XL has been a revelation for me.....I never knew how much a great preamp could "make" as system. Aric had to do some customization on mine as well, to compensate for the 10k ohm input for my CODA S5.5 amplifier.

I can also highly recommend some upgraded 6SN7 tubes that work very well in the Motherlode XL: Tung-Sol 6SN7GT ($300 pair), Sylvania 6SN7WGA (VT-231) $250 pair, Sylvania "Bad Boy" 6SN7s ($200 to $250 pair), and the Linlai E-6SN7s $156 plus shipping from jjyaudio.com which is a very trustworthy source for Chinese made tubes. 

Excellent idea to get a preamp custom made for your special needs I hope it works out well and gives you great sound.