Whats a good tube preamp?

In response to the title of this thread:one that makes great music. Ok my vote goes for C.J.ls16 aka the baby art. Saving for one.

Haven't heard the top of the line stuff from Conrad Johnson, but the current mid level stuff is not what I'd call transparent. Very musical (a CJ PV3 was my very first "high-end" preamp and caused me to get the terminal disease called audiophilia obsessive disorder -- ie. hooked on audio). I use an ARC LS15 with NOS tubes now and feel it to be very transparent. Not as richly colored as the CJ stuff, but very nice. A good friend has an LS25 of which I am very familiar with in my system and it is quite a bit better (and more transparent) than my LS15. I can't see how you'd go wrong with any of the good CJ or ARC gear. BTW, I used to own ML ReQuests and the LS15 worked well with them, though amp matching is the bigger challenge with ML's. The Premier 11 is great and probably sounds wonderful with the Aerius. Avguygeorge? What? They let you in here?

Vocale (vocale@aol.com) in the Uk make a nice pre; it only uses one component at a time in the signal path, and avoids caps wherever possible. It's all-tube with a stunningly neutral phono stage. Costs about $1500 over here I think. But the other answer is 'one which makes music'.