Cary Audio SLP-05 or Conrad Johnson ET7 S2

never heard the CJ but have been enamored with my SLP 05 for almost a year.  the Cary is warm, smooth, ultra refined and detailed with great dynamics and a crazy deep and wide sound stage.  
it has adjustable gain which comes in handy, a two box eye candy design that is stunning, unique sound of the 6SN7 tubes and a desirable r core transformer that is the best in the business for low noise.  luxman also uses r core transformers in some products.  
the CJ uses one tube, does not have adjustable gain and inverts phase at the output.  it is also twice as much as the Cary which is quite reasonable at Cary direct.  

charles,
gain is continuously variable- 0 to max on the dual front controls.  
right now i have them set to half 

@langla   
your decware amp appears to be an intrgrated amp and does not have high level preamp inputs.  
if it did the gain issue would not be a problem with the cary because it has adjustable gain. 
you could consult with decware, i bet they could easily modify the amp to accept preamp inputs.  

I had a Rogue Audio preamp with 3 levels of switchable gain 3, 12 and 16db.  
this proved to be very useful too.