How hard is this on a tube pre amp?

FWIW, I sometimes push my Ref 5 SE to 80+ clicks out of 104 total clicks when playing some records. Kal said I won't hurt the Ref 5. If you want to be certain, e mail Kal. He's very responsive.

wow how loud do you need??
ref2 already seems to be a high gain pre, but turning it to 3:00 -- chances you're hard either on speakers or amp.

It's not really that loud since the recorded signal is low. It's about as loud as 11:00 on most standard CDs. (Rock)

It seems to me that you have a lack of input level and using player with weak signal.
There are players that have 2v output and perhaps you should look for the one instead of what you have.
Your volume settings past 12:00 should realy shake the house while moderate volumes should between 9:00 -- 10:00 or 10:00 -- 11:00
Your tubes in preamp pretty much 'don't care' about your volume settings. Oppo players have only 1v output.

Czarivey, oppo list the output at 2.1 SE and 4.2 balanced.

Analog Audio Characteristics** Frequency Response: (RCA) 20Hz – 20kHz: ± 0.2dB, 20Hz – 96kHz: -1.5dB. (XLR) 20Hz –
20kHz: ± 0.3dB, 20Hz 96kHz: -1.5dB
Signal-to-Noise Ratio: >130dB (A-weighted, auto-mute), >115dB (A-weighted, no auto-mute)
THD+N: <0.0003% or -110dB (1kHz at 48k/24b, 0dBFS, 20kHz LPF), <0.0017% or -96dB
(1kHz at 44.1k/16b, 0dBFS, 20kHz LPF)
Output Level: 2.1 Vrms (RCA) or 4.2 Vrms (XLR) at 0dBFS
Dynamic Range: >110dBV
Channel Separation: >110dB