VTL 5.5 vs. Lamm LL2?

I'm trying to mate my VTL MB185 mono amps with a really nice preamp. My budget is around $3000.00. Initially, I thought that the best choice would be a unit made by the same manufacturer as the amps. Anyway, what better place to get an intelligent opinion on this than Audiogon. By the way,

I'm not interested in hearing anything about the Audio Horizons preamp. I've already read about that unit in the longest running. I believe that they have the longest running thread on audiogon (over 3.5 years) with over 1000 entries (most) from the same small handful of people. Does anyone find this odd? Either way, I'm not interested in this unit. Although, I'm sure that some of it's "long standing" fans will make it into this forum.