$8000 budget on Pre-amp

I'm a big Ayre fan....(totally Ayred out). Excellent customer service, battleship construction, and fabulous sound. Of coarse, all components have to be tried in your system for interaction pluses and minuses.....what fun

I own same amps with the Music Culture mc-601 pre (former dsigner of MBL). This pre smoked the xp-20 and some others. This one will leave you with pletny of change from $8k budget.

Hi Bigiron,

I wonder if you had a chance trying Ayres KX-5 preamp?

Have you ended your quest for the best preamp?
If yes which on is your final choice?

Thanks.

Kris

I have a Dude. A few teething problems with Paul - like some superficial quality control - knobs not fitting, etc - but in the end he came through, fixed everything and it does sound spectacular.Best I've heard. And I've tried most of the top $8-12K preamps. The Dude and the CJ Premier 16L would be my two top 2 preamps.