Might try a tube preamp

My NOS Sylvanias are NOT bright, noted by most reviewers of these things, and I also use NOS USA Amperex tubes, and NOS RCAs...Instruments certainly sound real, which I can verify by listening to actual instruments I often use as a life long musician. I bristle at references to my hearing as I currently work with world class musicians in my capacity as a  professional live sound mixer...if this gets out I'm toast! I suggest you not threaten me as being "called out" for reporting things as I hear them, as It makes you seem somewhat desperate, cowardly, weak, and a little creepy.

My post was primarily in jest, had no misspellings or punctuation issues, and I don't actually care much about Don Sachs although I assume he's a wonderful designer and a true mensch, and I do hope to someday be his friend so we can perhaps shower together and share vacations. Note that I refuse to practice any form of mirth control. Also, nobody cares about the most interesting part of my post which is the Don Ho reference, and that's a shame. I do think the tubes I'm using sound fabulous in the Freya, and am seemingly too old to care what anybody else thinks unless they absolutely agree with me. I will politely refrain from telling you what you can do with your Ken Rads.

I’ve owned a LOT of preamps and I consider the Freya to be a neutral, very well designed and way underrated giant killer with performance and features absent from really any other preamps at any price, although I haven’t heard every other preamp including those from Don Sachs, Don Juan, or Don Ho (Although I did sell a Fender Twin Reverb amp with JBLs and an Anvil case to Don Ho in maybe 1980...that’s another story). In my Freya I prefer some recently acquired NOS RCAs and NOS Sylvania "chrome domes" (although I’m not 100% sure the RCAs are better than the Sylvanias, but they’re in the somewhat less critical "output" stage). With these it certainly "competes," and if you don’t tube roll how the hell are you going to know which tube works best with your rig? Note that regarding cost, my Dennis Had "Inspire" Firebottle HO (it’s a HO...says so right on the front) was 4 months old when I bought it for about 1100 bucks, and the Freya new was 700...with $11,438 spent on 6SN7GTBs used in both. So I now have all of this for around $13,238. Take that Don Sachs! (is that like Don Juan? I hope it is if only for my sake). I’m running out of storage space for the tube collection, and may have to wire them up in a string as holiday ornaments.

Get a Schiit Freya...a great sounding preamp that has some unique features including the ability to switch in and out of the tube section into passive or FET, has balanced and single ended ins and outs, has a very accurate volume control, and costs peanuts relative to pretty much everything out there.