What's your "diminishing returns" preamp choice?

David your comment about older generation cj preamps is interesting and timely in my case. I recently purchased a PV9 from the estate of a recently fallen audio friend at a very good price. He supposedly had work done on it but looking inside it appears stock, so I don't know what. Having owned both a PV7 and PV5 in the 80's I've always been a fan of the CJ. What I like about the PV9, much better than the other two with the huge power supply is the 3D layering of instruments and a natural tonality, more of a mid hall presentation than upfront/direct which I also like. The older CJ components I've listened to all seem to have this characteristic. The only issue with this unit is that it just doesn't resolve everything in the manner of a newer design although there is much to like otherwise. I am considering upgrading to better teflon/polypro coupling and filter caps to see where it might go. The only issue is cost vs gain since there is no way of knowing the end results and recapping will not be cheap. Factory upgrades to teflon would be quite expensive, more than I would want to pay. The big consideration here is the phono stage is included, a big plus since that was the main focus on this unit when it was introduced.

Has anyone ever heard a bottlehead beepre? I've been intrigued by 300 B preamps for quite some time and loved the DIY aspect of the hobby. So I really been thinking about giving the bottle head A try.

I use a Passive DIY built clone of a Music First Baby reference, which is excellent for detail and transparency, but lacks the last bit of slam and dynamics.

This quote by David12 is something I have heard many others say about passives and is consistent with what I personally hear from the two resistor-based passives I own.

I have owned some 20'ish preamps in the $3-10K price range, including many of which are still current models. For me, the merry-go-round stopped with my McCormack TLC-1 that Steve McCormack at SMc Audio upgraded/rebuilt with the single goal of providing the best sound possible. It is now a zero-gain, balanced, buffered-active preamp with an outboard choke power supply, Lundahl transformers, Jensen copper foil caps and a Shallco discrete-resistor volume control with Audio Note resistors. It has a new black faceplate and is pictured on the SMc Audio website and on my A'gon virtual system page. It just kills every other preamp I have owned. I highly recommend you give Steve a call and discuss your options. One of the best audio purchases I have made.

I can list off preamps up to 8K that couldn't hold a candle to my LDR at 1/8 the price.

Shakey

I recently purchased an Ayre K5xe-MP here on Agon and absolutely love it. I was playing my CH Precision C1 dac direct into my CH Precision A1 amp and it sounded great, but with the Ayre there's a slight sweetening of the sound with no or little loss of air and dynamics playing the C1 direct. I think the K5xe-MP is a steal even at full list.