Most Quiet TUBE Preamp. Linestage. $ 12K or less

I think Matt does a great job summing things up... It's funny how you read these reviews in magazines (or sometime posts on Agone) that tell how component X just killed component Y and it's the BEST ever, etc. Then you have a chance to hear three highly regarded preamps into the exact same system (AC line, w/the same IC's, etc). and the differences are so small that it would really come down to personal preference (for example I would like to have the ARC's remote, but can't stand that crazy neon display).

Yeah, I own the system, room and most of the music we played and, like Matt, I was still suffering the quandry of getting my head around it all....

To try to add some additional thoughts on things though... To my ears the ARC had slightly deeper soundstage than the Aesthetix, and the BAT. I think the Aesthetix had a bit wider presentation than either of the others, with less imaging hanging on the speakers (the speakers dissappeared as a source a little more).

I think the Aesthtix and ARC were a little more extended than the BAT up top, but the Aesthetix sounded sweeter to me... It felt more "right" like my easy chair compared to someone elses. I think Guido had the opposite take and it's probably down to what you are used to.

.... The funny thing is, right now I am messing with tube rolling (again) in the Callisto and I can probably make as large of a difference to the sound of things as the differences between all of these killer preamps ;-))

Chris

Second Cedars response on the Audio Horizons TP 2.0 preamp.

It's the one to hear, just taking too long to get recognized (a real shame)

What is this, 1945? Guess which well designed tube line stage over 1000.00 is dead quiet? ALL OF THEM. Geez

Noise on your power line. Have you considered the source of power to your equipment. Toroid transformer can hum like the dickens with any DC or other pollution on the line. If this question arises because your equipment sometimes hums and sometimes not, you need filtering. Don't go cheep. I purchased an Isotek Syncro cable and everything in my system is quiet now. I use to be able to hear my amp hum from across the room. The sound is also just that much better in my opinion. It cleaned up a little of the treble breakup at high frequency.

I have a BAT Rex with a Krell 400e amp. The system is truly dead quiet. I have three dedicated lines for the AC into the system and I swear that regardless of volume level of the pre there is no noise NONE coming out of those speakers. The speakers are Revel Salon 2, with an Esoteric K-01 for the source, and the whole system sounds great.