Best Balanced Tube Preamplifier

BAT VK51SE doesn't sound "tubey", you can forget that one.

Cary 05 in the mix... stunning.

I dont know about the best but I used both ARC ref 3 and Cary SPL05. I took the ref 3 in as a trade from a customer. It's a great preamp, as a matter of preference, i prefer the SPL05 simply due to a slightly warmer sounding. Ref 3 is dead-on neutral.

The Cary SLP 2002 is a very nice fully balanced tube preamp that isn't as warm as the SLP98 or as neutral as the 6H30 tube preamps such as the calypso, BAT, etc. It is a steal that the used market prices they seem to go for.

I found the SLP 2002 sound to be great. I'd call it slightly coloured. Being 6922 based, there is a lot of tube rolling that can be done to tweak the sound, and it can also take 6CG7's and 6H30's too. A very flexible unit.

Good luck.

FWIW we've built only balanced tube preamps. As far as we can tell, we are the first manufacturer to make fully differential and balanced all-tube preamps (1989). One of the founders of BAT bought one of the first production MP-1s before BAT was created.