Best preamp for my system.

UPDATE: Well I did some auditioning and ended up buying a Nagra PLL preamp. It blew me away. It is better than my Levinson 380S in every way. I could not audition everything I was interested in, due to local availability, however over the years I have compared lots to my Levinson 380S and always the ML came out on top for me. The detail on the Nagra is in a different league from my Levinson, as well the sound staging and reality of the performance for me is a big step closer to being there. The Nagra also was for me heads and shoulder better than the MBL 5011. I was unfortunately unable to listen to a MBL 6010D. I also thought the Nagra was much more detailed than the Krell stuff I listened to. I really didn't want to buy the Nagra, because I wanted Home Theatre pass-through for convenience, and also wanted two sets of balance ins and outs, which the Nagra does not have!! I am also not crazy about the side inputs and outputs on the Nagra........I keep my interconnects short due to cost, and am now probably going to have to purchase a longer set! However.........I just could not deny the sound and performance of this preamp. So much so, that all the other "wants" just became secondary to the music. I am hearing so much more music on every CD I play, that I look forward to re-hearing every song on my favourite playlist. Occassionally I'm shocked at how much I never heard before on CD's I've played for years. One other thing that stands out for me is how everything is held together at higher volumes. It doesn't matter whether playing low volume or higher volumes, things all stay the same, only louder. I could never really understand what some people were saying when they would comment on this, until now, and I realize how thin my Levinson got when the volume was turned up.

Thanks to everyone who input to this thread.

Bullot,

Not everyone likes the REF 3. I bought it without auditioning thinking the same thing.

I'll sell you mine for half price.

If you decide to sell your Gabriels please let me know; I have been keenly interested in trying them, and nervous about their price......

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!