$18k Tube preamp for large scale symphonies please

Philipwu, I will try and help you hear the sound of the Dude (latest generation) with my words. The Dude is a full bodied, dynamic beast of audio. The stage is big, bold and effortless. The music is powerful, robust and never constrained.

In it's latest generation the Dude is richly resolving bringing out all of music's finer details and nuances. It seems to handle and pull off two things that are very hard to do at the same time.

1) Clear window to the music with SOTA resolving ability.
2) But the Dude is not light or overly airy. It is full bodied and the Dude portrays music with the meat, body and density I hear in the natural instrument and voice.

Tube choice is also important with any of these preamps. The Dude responds very well to tube rolling. Place Marconi 6sn7 tubes and you fatten the sound with a slightly warm personality. Use nice 1940 RCA's and the Dude is more resolving and intimate.

The bass is absolutely stunning in power and articulation. A real strength in this preamp.

Great thread with many great preamp choices. Life is a blessing!

Merry Christmass to all!

Correction - Merry Christmas - sorry for the typo.....

Phillip,
As said at the start of your thread, there are simply great linestages to choose from. You have gotten excellent suggestings from people who`s opinion I respect. We all will very proudly tout are own because we live with them and know how wonderful they sound. I can`t see you making a mistake, which ever route you decide to take. No single linestage(no exceptions) is going to be the very best at everything!the CSL,TRL Dude(with CAST capacitor),VAC Sig MK II,Atamasphere-MP-1 MK 3,Shindo. They all will make you happy.
Regards,

I respect the willingness of various posters here to offer suggestions and sonic descriptions, but, at the risk of repeating myself, so much is about synergy with the rest of the system, once the basics are nailed down, and dependent on the listener's own biases. I can't imagine trying to understand the nuances of what gear at this level sounds like in an appropriate system without hearing it for yourself, in your system. And I agree that tube rolling can make a huge difference, which just adds another variable to the equation, but one that can be fun.
Good luck.
Bill Hart

Jwm, pretty sure we will have at least two types of cables there. They will both be about 40 feet long. Would that be sufficient for you?