Please, the Thor is a turgid, dark sounding turd. I oughta know, I used to own the TA-2000. Next!! The best preamps I've heard by a longshot are the Lamm L1, the above-mentioned Hovland HP-100 (beautiful too!), and the First Sound Presence units. The Lamm is the most balanced of the three for various types of music and systems. The Hovland is wonderfully liquid and musical, but the bass is a bit soft and it can be a tad forward in some systems. It works great if you listen to a lot of jazz, light classical, and (especially) vocalists. The First Sound units have incredible dynamics, stupendous even--this is the one to get if you're into heavy rocking blues or full-scale orchestral pieces. They do have waaaaayyy too much gain though, so they are best matched with a power amp with low input sensitivity or you won't get any play at all in the volume control.
Best Pre-amp under 7k
I am looking for a new preamp to fit my system: Theta miles CD, Pass Aleph 3, Proac 2.5, basis 1400 with graham 2.0 and grado reference. I have an audio research PH3SE as my phono stage so I dont need one. Have been looking at Rowland Synergy, Levinson 380S, Hovland, Thor and Audio Research LS25. I enjoy the liquid sound of tubes but highly regard the detail and bass slam from solid state (i.e. Levinson gear). What is the best preamp for my sytem to provide me with detail, superb imaging, tight bass, and a smooth sound? If I have to choose between detail/superb imaging and liquid sound, I would go with the detail/imaging. Thanks for any help in this mind-bending saga!!