best preamp ever - cost is no object

There is also the idea that in pursuit of the 'best' (IOW the state-of-the-art) that the designer must sort out what it is that allows for foot-tapping *and* good specs!

But then at the same time there is the issue of taste. I found out about 25 years ago a disturbing discovery: If God made a preamp and sold it to humans who did not know the preamp was in fact perfect, some would say it was bright, others would call it dull, bloated, bass shy/boomy etc. IOW some would buy it and others would disdain it.

What is left seems to fall in the realm of 'looking good' and 'not looking bad' in the eyes of our fellow audiophiles, after the equipment has passed muster to our own ears.

IOW all the above is meaningless- in such a world, as a designer or as an audiophile you simply have to play the game all out and do the best you can.

Radio shack Reference standard- it was only made for a short time then discontinued - NOT, there are a handfull that excell in various departments to tough to call champ.
for under 10k the new Dodd Dc powered pre especially since the new power supply runs on all 4 batterys very natural with solid Bottom end, for up to 20 hours ,I just sold my modded Modwright to buy one. 10audio review is out of touch and that was a
early unit that only used 20 available amps now it is 40.

Last weekend, a local tube maven brought a small sample of his wares (2 huge tupperware tubs) to a friend's home. The friend also owns an Einstein preamp. Neither of us has had anything but praise for the Einstein in the last year, but wondered if it could be improved even further by changing out the first stage input tubes and the single 12AU7 with something other than the Electro Harmonic tubes provided. The short answer is dramatically so in each case. Almost every NOS tube substitued made an audible improvement. In some cases, a dramatic improvement. Unfortunately the best 6922 variant proved to be a Siemens 7308 from the mid 1960's and the best 12AU7 was a CBS variant from the same period. Each was very expensive, particularly in the case of the input tubes in which 2 are required for each input, so basically over $1000 worth of tubes. The point of this short story is that even the best tubed preamp is probably limping along unless its tube compliment is optimized and a lesser unit with better tubes may sound better. This certainly complicates comparisons, at least, of tubed units.

Fred,
When you start recommending $1000 pairs of 6922 tubes and $2,400.00 power cords like you have been doing on this site you really need a reality check; swing by my house and I'll show you what $9 6922 tubes and $5 stock power cords can do when you know a thing or two about sound reproduction, physics, acoustics and electronics. It's time for you to learn a thing or two about the art of sound reproduction. Some of us use more than our wallets to make decisions of what to purchase. The time has come to learn a lesson in stereophonics.

Fcrowder states: "The point of this short story is that even the best tubed preamp is probably limping along unless its tube compliment is optimized and a lesser unit with better tubes may sound better. This certainly complicates comparisons, at least, of tubed units."

Well said, Fred, and I agree. By the way, the best 6922 variant that I've tried in my preamp is a 1960 Siemens CCa, grey plate. It bettered by a small, but significant margin, the Siemens 7308( E188CC).