Top ten tube preamps

Aesthetix Callisto Partial Eclipse. Works for me.

Of course I am a tube pre fan, having owned ARC, CAT, Lamm, and currently Atma-sphere and Joule preamps, and all of you are fans too, but I would suggest that just on a lark, and for only $450 you try a Lightspeed Attenuator if you have a tube amp (100kohm input impedance). It is limited to one rca input and output, but compare it with your megabuck preamps and see what you think. I have had some dissapointmet with variour passives (resistor, TVCs and AVCs) but this humble little preamp is the best I have heard in my system. Even if you stick with your tube preamps, I'm not getting rid of mine, it makes for an interesting backup, at the very least, and perhaps you might find that you like it better than anything you throw up against it. Some thought to system matching is needed (as using SETs would be) but if you can get used to the idea of using a $450 preamp in your $50,000 setups, you might be surprised. My recommedation now for SOTA sound at a bargain prices is a Music Reference RM10 amp matched with the Lightspeed. With the money of the gear being discussed here, it is worth a try IMHO.

Below is my ranking. I owned them all except for the Cortese, which spent an afternoon in my system compliments of a friend.

1. SMc VRE-1
2. First Sound Deluxe Mk II
3. SupraTek Cortese
4. Joule La-150 Mk I
5. Blue Circle BC-3
6. McIntosh C-15

I never thought I would end up with a solid state preamp, but after 18 months I have not felt the slightest itch to change or try something different.

Hope to get a chance to hear that VRE-1 at RMAF - the reviews and owner comments have been bery positiive.