A lot of good suggestions.
In my experience the Backert sounded like AI - very dynamic, but artificial sounding. A sax should sound like a sax and the difference between a piano, harp and harpsichord is easily confused with the pre.
I passed on the Pre in favor of the Aesthetics Calypso...which gets the timbre and dynamics right...as did the Atma Pre - just not as deep a stage.