Top ten tube preamps

Levinson 32 reference, ARC 2 and 3, BAT 51se, Krell Evo 202 and KCT, Mcintosh C46 and MC2000(tube), Sonic Frontiers reference linestage(#escapes me but it was 2 chassis)plus some old CJ stuff! Anything else would have been on demo only.

Foe me It is Zanden 3000. Uncannily life like harmonics and tonal balance. You can hear in to low volume details clearly. Vocals are extremely lifelike and jumps out in the room free of speaker plane confinemnet. With minimum hifi like (of course assuming recordings to be good to begin with).

Cary SLP-05 in addition to the numerous others that have been listed here.

My vote would be for the Art Audio Alana.

Absolutely love Ray Samuels Audio B52 as a preamp
and you get the best headphone amp in the world.
I have one and love it and many many owners I have
spoken with agree. (No remote, though.)