The entire industry showered praises on the talents of Tim de Paravicini and the quality of his EAR-Yoshino designs when he passed recently, yet his pre-amps (and power amps) continue to be ignored by audiophiles. That mystifies me. Art Dudley loved and owned a Shindo pre, yet expressed his lust for the EAR 912 after hearing it in his system. Priced under $15k.
Paravicini is well known for his balancing transformers, used in some of the best recording studios in the world. The EAR 868 and 912 pre-amp employ his transformers to provide dual balanced outputs, those pre's providing dual unbalanced outputs as well. Four outputs, each capable of driving a 600 ohm load, simultaneously! Try THAT with an ARC, VAC, VTL, Shindo, or Conrad-Johnson. The excellent Atma-Sphere pre's are equally capable---without the need for transformers, but don't provide unbalanced inputs or outputs.