First tube preamp recommendations (under $5k)

ARC Ref 3, best Aesthetix you can find, CJ, …. Just my bias….

+1

audio research and conrad johnson have not been stealing deaf people's money for 40+ years

the gear is built to last and sounds truly excellent

I would check out a pre-owned Conrad Johnson ET-5. It is essentially 1/2 of a CJ GAT1. It listed for $9,500 when discontinued a couple of years ago and are now available for $3,500 to $4,000.

This preamp uses a single 6922 tube, and it’s pretty easy on them, too. So, I run a Telefunken 6922. It sounds great with the Siemens 6922 tube, as well.

i am an owner of an et-5 as well, love it for its utterly beautiful, spacious sound and build quality, and the fact it runs a single tube, so tube rolling is effortless and cost effective

however, it is well known among owners of this unit that it runs the tube fairly hard (6.3 to 6.4v heater voltage, which is slightly above the spec for a standard spec 6dj8 tube) - so that tube will typically get noisy after about 1 year of regular use

there are solutions to this issue but i did not want those folks who may be considering the et-5 to believe that the single small signal tube will last as long as other tube linestages

*****************************************************************************************************

as a separate note, to the other post... the audible illusion mod 3a is infamous for being very hard on its tubes, and for not being at all forgiving of even slightly noisy tubes... furthermore their customer service over the years has been spotty at best... that unit sounds lovely when it is working right, but there are some issues/challenges to long term ownership

What I don’t know is if ML2 will be competitive or better than stuff like a used VAC Ren V or ARC Ref 5.

1.  no one here in this conversation is a rookie... there is really only one way to really find out ...

2.  in this stratosphere of linestages, NONE are poor, it is a matter of what works for the specific user, his tastes, his desire for certain features etc etc

wife bought it, yet still waffling ... 😞😞😞