Neutral preamps

Aleph P. But you don't have to take my word for it.

Here is what a fellow audiophile had to say after attending a front end comparison party at my place:

"Your system is by far the most neutral I've heard in a home. Any change to front end is so immediately noticed that I feel comfortable that the rest of the system is simply getting out of the way."

Reference Line passive preamps are awesome!! You can get some of them with remotes. I sold a Preeminence 1A, and I am sorry I did. Excellent sound. You could probably pick one up for around $600. It is a warm, but high in resolution. Hard to beat.

You might want to listen to the Hovland. It has changed my feeling about tube preamps. I have owned many tube pres and they for the most part have that not unpleasant bump in the middle. Warm, dark, rich whatever. The problem is that even slight adjustments are now not acceptable given good source and good components on the back end. The Hovland does not make Ella seem like she is sitting on your lap or that her head is six feet wide. I found the Hovland to provide much more detail from my source and for good or bad I think you need to hear what the producers intended.

The BAT VK-30 SE and BAT VK-50 SE sound very neutral to me.

I heard it against the Aesthetix last year. Prior to that, the Asthetix was the best I'd heard.