Whats a good tube preamp?

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'.

Hey,cuz!! yeah,you got a keyboard and a password;where you can go is limitless. No discrimination here.With Martin Logan,the amp is the more difficult choice.those 2 om loads(some drop even lower) require brute force with finesse.As my astute cuz has already pointed out.Oh,the Jadis jp 80 mk2 for 20 grand---thats a good pre amp too.

Of all the ones you mentioned the CJ 16LS is by far the best. I have not personaly heard, but I'm told it is 90-95% of the $17,000 CJ ART. It will offer you more resolution & detail than the others along with that uncomprimised magical midrange that CJ is so famous for. Of course it's not cheap to buy or retube. On the used market you'll find them going for around $4,200.00. One you did not mention & you may want to consider is the Joule Electra LA-100 MK111. I know it will kill all but the CJ 16LS. It will offer the same amount of resolution, detail & 3 dimemtion that the CJ does, but is maybe just a tad warmer. You may prefer this with your particular speakers because they are so revealing to begin with. In additon, you can pick up a Joule for a fraction of what the CJ will set you back. I seen them on the used market from anywhere to $1400-$1900 range. Just make sure it's a MK111. Good luck & happy listening.

I own an ARC LS-25 and I love it... I feel it is pretty neutral... A friend of mine and I did a "shoot-out" with ARC pre-amps on about 60K of other gear, and the ARC Ref 2 was the best!! Between the Ref 1 and the LS-25..... If you like more detail, the LS-25 is the way... If you want a bit more "tube seduction", try the Ref. 1. Between the LS-25 and the Ref 1 -- if they weren't together, you probably could tweek the one to sound like the other with NOS Tubes (Amperex). I have not heard the CJ gear... but others tell me they are a bit colored and provide a "lush" tube sound.