Nice conclusion @nordicnorm
OP:
So many suggestions!
Did you overcome your indecision paralysis??
I'd like to (belatedly) second the Musical Paradise 701mk2 suggestion, with a caveat:
Since the tubes and capacitors can be easily swapped out, it can become a money pit!
I have rolled in V-cap ODAMS for a transparent presentation and Mundorf SGO supreme EVOs for more full bodied tonal saturation....and that's just the coupling caps! Power supply bypass caps are also tunable via screw terminals inside the preamp. Just takes a couple of minutes to swap out before powering up in the morning.
Perfect preamp for a tube afficianado to tune in EXACTLY the sound you want!
However, I'm eyeing the Ladder Bach as a balanced, neutral pre for the balanced outputs of my Denafrips DAC.... Hopefully to keep a reference point for my tube shenanigans. Also, having a preamp I can leave on for the weekend would be nice.
Does anyone have experience with the Ladder Bach?