Best preamp for my system.

I love the Gabriel Raptures. I don't have much to compare them to........some MIT and also some Virtual Dynamics stuff,Heavens gate, Madrigal, Cardas........
The GG is so so nice! I would like to try some other stuff, but when I look at the system and think, well what could my weak link be now.........my answer is never the GG. So I will make them work for now, perhaps look at a longer pair in the future, we'll see.

With respect to the Ref 3, I considered it very carefully. It did everything I wanted, had all the connections I wanted, but, I found too many people who were not happy with it. That's not to say that it's no good or anything I'm sure, just that perhaps it did not fit into everyones system to their liking. With the Nagra, wow, really happy with it. I will need to hook my home theatre through it in the next little while and see how that is going to sound...........if I can't make that work nicely for me, I may need to consider something like the VAC Renaisance in the future, with all the connections I need...........hopefully I can make this pass-through thing work, cause I would like to make this preamp a keeper.

Just to keep anyone up to speed who is reading or following this thread................I sold the Nagra and bought the Joule Electra LA300 (Marianne)preamp. Don't get the wrong idea, I loved the Nagra......didn't like it's looks, loved it's "sound". Now with the Marianne, I feel my preamp search is over. I find it to be like a woman that is somewhat attractive at first, and the more you get to know her the more beautiful she gets........rare!! As much as I liked the sound of the Nagra, it never came close to having that affect on me, no piece of audio equipment has!

Glad to hear you're pleased with the Joule LA300 (Marianne). I've had the Joule LA-150 Mk2 for a couple years and have never thought about changing preamps until your post. Simon emailed me the other day saying that the SE upgrade is definitely worth pursuing, which adds some of the trickle down changes that were put into the Marianne version. I will have to go that route considering the price of a new Marianne.

I'm about 460 hours into break-in on an Esoteric C-03 preamp. This unit is truly something special. I now know first hand why it won 2 Blue Moon awards from 2 different reviewers on 6moons!

I've heard a little about the Esoteric preamp Mark, but will have to check out those reviews!

I have moved on from the Joule and bought both an Atmasphere MP1 and MBL6010D to compare, thinking I would keep the one which worked best in my system, which I did. The Atma has moved on and I am using the MBL now!