Most Quiet TUBE Preamp. Linestage. $ 12K or less

guys forgive my ignorance, but exactly (I am relatively new to tubedom) what is the preamp tube noise you are talking about? Am I missing it? I have a SET amp and SET pre, but I don't hear a darn thing, but the music. thanks in advance, warren :)

Like Raquel said, at your budget there are some fine SS choices as well. I recently purchased an Essential 3150 from Raul and am very happy with it. There are a couple threads going on about it on the Analog form if you are interested.

Matt

Some friends and I (hey Matt) recently did a little preamp comparison with an ARC Ref3, BAT 51se, and my Aesthetix Callisto. All three were very quiet on my AVG's... And believe me when I say that with these speakers you are going to hear a noisy component.

Chris

Hey Chris,

I'd be very interested in hearing what other thoughts you had when comparing these three preamps, besides just noise. How did they sound on music? How did they differ?

Regards,
John

Far down the price range from where Joefama is looking, both Welborne Labs and Wright Sound Company desing amps and preamps to work with 100-108dB horn speakers. They are extremely quiet with those ultra-sensitive horns and dead quiet with anything less. They are also extremely revealing and neutral.

There are quite a few amp companies targeting the high efficiency horn market specifically, they would be the best bet if absolute quiet is your highest priority. Gordon Rankin's Wavelength Audio comes to mind in the $12.5k-$19k(Silver wired transformers) range new.