Please, everyone, Siddh listens to classical on an analog system and loves his JP80. Don't tell him to listen to SS amps or throw some "transparent" silver IC in the mix; he's past that.
Siddh, you need to seriously ask yourself why you want to change your JP80, given its high musicality. Yes, objective factors such as transient attack can be improved, but at what cost?
"Craving detail" does not necessarily impart greater insight into a performance. You asked about philosophies on listening, etc...OK, I'll try an integrated response.
When you first sit down to listen, your consciousness is in a certain state, namely, a thinking state. As we listen to the music, a "musical" stereo piece will, or should, catalyze a movement of our minds from this thinking state into progressive states that are characterized by an absense of thinking.
Interestingly, these states - cognitive and trans-cognitive - impart their own perceptions of the music's truth. For instance, when you first start listening your thinking is object-orientated because the nature of human cognition is dualistic and object orientated (evolution produced this as a means of better identification of prey, and our culture of object accumulation reinforces and reflects it). In order to perceive objects better, our minds focus on the visual cues that bound that object from the surrounding space. This is the reason why when we first sit down to listen, we focus on the "edge boundaries" of the sound projections (and also explains why some people's stereos pump up image defintion into a nearly visual experience and why the present language we use to describe sound uses predominantly visual metaphors, ie. detail, transparancy, etc.).
As you seep into the music, however, your mind "lets go" of its desire to objectify sound (which, you will note, is not an object at all). In other words, you become more receptive to that which is outside. In this sense, the stereo is not the cause of the movement of the mind into deeper, more trans-cognitive states, but merely encourages it; you have to allow it. This progressive receptivity experiences the truth of music, and these experiences that are beyond the grasp of thought we label with the abstraction "musicality". We know that we have experienced an event of musicality, but because language is dualistically-based and requires thought for its expression, we have a difficult time describing states that are experienced beyond thought (hence, the difficulty of moving past our present language to describe sound vs. the experience of sound).
Now let me bring this back to you. While increasing detail can provide its own truths, many times the increase of objectification of sound creates a situation where the mind thereafter becomes focused on the sound-object and does not seep deeper into the music. In other words, increasing focused-upon detail at shallower levels of the mind many times inhibits the mind's releasing of that objectifying thought; detail inhibits receptibility to musical meaning towards deeper levels. This is why a person who is attached to his analytic mind constructs a stereo that is impressive in objective ways of detail, etc., but whose stereo is also "sterile" or "mechanical" (this also explains why detail-orientated stereos sell in shops well; because the listener/buyer listens from a shallower mode of perception. And also explains why double blind tests don't work; because the pressure of listening in test situations stimulates the thinking mind which then weights its perceptions towards detail). You have a preamp that excels at catalyzing your mind towrds deeper levels, but, when you are not listening, your everyday thinking mind is telling you that you need more detail (you never think detail is lacking when you are deeply into the music, do you?). So, basically, you have to decide "who" is the "you" who listens to the music?
Here's a hint. Notwithstanding Descartes assumptions, the non-thinking state is prior to thinking. When you listen to music, you are returning to the silence that is your a priori state. Which is why all of us want to have a more "musical" stereo. If you become "receptive" to the answer - your answer - without thinking about it too much, I think your answer will come to you...
As a practical matter, the JP200 would seem a logical choice, albeit an exhorbitant one (and, boxes, boxes everywhere!). The only pre that touches the JP80's line/phono stages in terms of musicality is the Supratek Triode Syrah (with Black glass KenRad 6SN7's). It exceeds it IMHO.
Sorry for the length of the response.
