Best tube preamp ever

My current system is a modest one at best. It includes affordable hifi gear that many of you may lought at. I am at the stage where I am moving into my new home and want to build a new state of the art hifi system. I am trying to get info on which brands i should be looking at before starting auditioning. For amps, I was thinking mating a tube preamp to either Krell, Bryston or Mark Levinson. For speakers, my dream has always been to own a Sonus Faber Cremona or Elipsa or the B&W 800Ds. I was thinking looking at lower brands such as paradigm s8s, but I think I will be staying away from it. In terms of preamps, I do not know much. I thought McIntosh preamps were great, but recently have heard that there are many better sounding electronics out there, hence my question. And sorry guys for posting in the speaker section of the forum.

Would also appreciate any pointers in terms of amps as well as speakers.

Thanks for all the comments, I really appreciate it. To answer some the the comments above, I do agree that "best" is a relative word in the world of electronics and very subjective. And I do agree that most have not listened to everything out there. that is exactly the reason I want to know what people consider best for themselves, which would give me a list to start researching and decide what's best for me. Looking at some of the preamps and brands mentioned above, it seems I will have my hands full researching all these products, which I look forward to. Thanks again to everyone!

My list had trickled down to:
VTL 7.5 or 6.5
VAC MK3
Eistein MKii

It seemed the VTL would be a better value overall, but man, it looked like a 1980s VCR. I was seduced by the German Eistein MKii looks and the amazing reviews that were out there about this preamp. I was not able to find anywhere to audition these where I live, so I had to go with what people have been saying about these and my own liking, mainly down to the looks in addition to the performance.

Long story short, I pulled the trigger on a used Eistein MKii that was listed here in Audiogon. This is going to be my firs high-end component entering my system, curious to see how it will change things. I hope I have not made a 8k mistake.

My next move is to send my Oppo-95 to Modwright to get the tube upgrade. Meanwhile, I can't wait to get my new preamp. Will post some first impressions when it arrives.