Vincent makes great and seemingly underrated stuff...until late last year I'd been using a Kavent S33 SS preamp which is a re-badged Vincent. Great sounding dual mono fully balanced preamp, but since I like tubes and have been using a Dennis Had SEP power amp for a while, I thought I'd try a Schiit Freya for its tube stage, and because it's curiously inexpensive. The Freya sounds great and I've been tube rolling and enjoying it immensely...there's nothing quite like it on the market, and certainly nothing with its features for anything near 700 bucks.
Some more exotic pres use direct-heated triodes like the 300B or 2A3. I’ve heard here and there that these DHTs are the best for their soundstand / imaging capabilities — is this true?
What is your budget? Sonic characteristics such as soundstage, detail, realism are determined by the specific design and also the type of tubes used in the circuit. Many great used tube pre's for sale.
Looks like the budget is around $700usd given the reference to the Vincent SA31. In that price range, options for decent new tube preamps are a little limited but in addition to the Freya suggested above, I’d add Mapletree Audio preamp. Its a two chassis design with separate power supply tube stage. If used is also an option, an older CJ PV series unit should work as well.
The Freya uses 4 6SN7GTBs or equivalent, and with remote switching between 3 modes (passive, FET, and tube), balanced and single ended ins and outs, and an accurate low distortion 128 step relay attenuator, there remains nothing like it anywhere.
It would help if you provided a few more details as to budget, aesthetics, what you are looking for etc.
There are good suggestions above, and i particularly like the herron, used CJ and Rouge gear. I have never heard the vincent so cannot comment, appears to be the house brand of Audio Advisor, at least here in the states.
One more id throw in is a joule electra. They made great pres in there day. you maybe able to pick up a la-100 for about 700. It may possibly run more depending on the tubes and version of the pre.
One more thing. Mapletree has a long and established reputation so i would not hesitate on one of theirs.
“Though I've heard the Wilson-Benesch Curve floorstanders many times before, I found that they sounded spectacularly good as driven by Kara Chaffee's amazing deHavilland tube electronics . Nothing I heard at RMAF, save perhaps for the far more expensive Vandersteen/ARC system, could touch this rig for sheer midrange purity, detail, three-dimensionality ." Chris Martens TAS on the 2009 show.
“I've always wanted to audition deHavilland Electric Amplifier Company's products. I was fortunate enough to do so at the show, with the very cordial assistance of Kara Chaffee, deHavilland's designer/owner. I went back to this room about half a dozen times. Kara probably thought that I was stalking her. Truth be told, I couldn't get enough of the sound of her Mercury III remote line stage and Model 50A, 40 watt Triode monoblocks driving a stunning pair of Wilson Benesch Curves. Their were far, far more expensive rooms at the show, off the chart expensive compared to deHavilland's very reasonably prices, yet none of them produced sound so sweet. Kara was available throughout to answer my dumb questions, and spin every special request. I wish that my picture would have captured the subtle beauty of this system. It doesn't get any better than this.” Ed Becker from hometheaterhifi.com. “Kara Chaffee of deHavilland Electric Amplifier Company demonstrated her relatively new KE 50A Signature monoblock amplifiers ($10,800 per pair) with her Mercury preamp, ($4,495) the $12,140/pr Wilson Benesch Curve 2.5-way floorstanders and Kubal-Sosna Research cables. Musicality reigned supreme here with the speakers completely disappearing in an expansive soundstage.” Steve March from 6moons.com.
Best Sound: “Honorable mentions include systems from: Wilson-Benesch/deHavilland.” Chris Martens from TAS The Best Room At The Show deHavilland/Kubala-Sosna/Esoteric/Sounds Real room. "Oddly enough, I believe last year, this room was my runner up. The sound was largely how I remember, but even better. I have my reasons for voting this room "the best" and here they are. It played music for me. Its presentation was very big and wide and spacious, yet intimate. It was as if the music was being played just for me. The timing and pace were right on as was the instrument and vocal definition. No, I don't think this system could fool you into believing that an entire orchestra was right in front of you, but then I didn't hear a single system at the show that could. The front-to-back and side-to-side special cues were intoxicating. At the core of the system are the deHavilland KE-50A monoblocks, which were driving Wilson Benesch Curves. The CD player was an Esoteric X-03SE and the preamp was a deHavilland Mercury III with all cables by Kubala-Sosna (which is new to me). The sound was so damn good I told Kara that if they had a turntable there, it might just push me over the edge. Seriously, as amazing as this system sounded, I wonder what level a solid analog front end would take it to. Here's the icing on the cake for the whole deal - the entire system's cost: $50k. $50k! A lot of dough? Yes. Yet for "Best of Show" at an audiophile event - 50 grand is nothing. Kudos to Kara Chaffee and company for setting up an amazing system with amazing components. The system just shined." Thad Aerts from The Hi-Fi reader I like the deHavilland amps more every time I hear them. The smaller room seemed suited more to the Wilson Benesch Curves with the amps; last year this combo seemed lost in the room. Not this time; it was intimate and powerful. The 50A Signature Mono Amps and Mercury III Remote Line Preamp sang an enchanting song together. Previously I had felt the need for the Curves to be powered by bigger amps, but the deHavillands are challenging that conclusion. They startled me with their fortitude, as well as their golden toned dialect spoken through the Curves.
Ask Ralph Karsten how much he is asking for one of the several versions of his Atmasphere UV-1 preamp. It too uses 6SN7s and can be configured to your needs. NOS ans ANOS 6SN7s in good condition are still available by the millions or so it seems on the secondary market. They really do have a specific or characteristic sound, the prices fairly low still* and therefore fun to roll.*Except for the most sought after manufactures and types, for example, the well known and worshiped 6SN7GT Tung Sol round plate. The TS round plate in ANOS quality can get about $400 +/-.
Troll extraordinaire is correct... "The Freya is not that good." It is VERY good and at the price a screaming bargain: very flexible in terms of inputs and output modes; a balanced design; an excellent, finely graduated volume control; with properly screened tubes (whether NOS or new production, e.g., EH or TungSol) it is very quiet; regardless of tubes used, it's dead silent in Passive or JFET mode. I use mine with a number of different amps (Taranis, Hegel, First Watt) and am extremely happy with the results. It supports excellent quality sound with nice 3D imaging. Highly recommended for an in-home trial, at least. Can't compare to the Vincent SA31. Did find it better than the dual 6H30/EZ80-rectified tube preamp I had previously.
Schiit Freya, i am a Schiit fan. Remember that Schiit sells direct, no middlemen, so the price is about 1/2 of what it would be from a refular AV store. That is a big part of their value. And the engineering they are doing in their products is intelligent, sophisticated.
And you get a 30day trial with full refund. What is not to like??
but I would also support the Vincent tubes and hybrid gear. Well- built, very good sound, undervalued and underpriced.
I'm now on my third piece of Schiit gear as, based on very positive reviews and my experience with my other two Schiit items, I just bought a Mani 3 headphone amp (as everybody should for 100 bucks...it's almost free)...so a Freya, the amazing Loki EQ, and a Mani 3 for less than a grand should make more than a few other companies somewhat worried as all three are superb sounding, quiet running, no nonsense designs. I did not expect the Freya to be "that good" until I put it in my rig last year, and yeah...it is that good.
Not long ago I purchased at few tubes from Upscale Audio so now half the Web sites I visit have advertising banners from Upscale. Anyway they are really pushing the trade in's, a few pretty nice pre-amps. Their site may be worth a visit.
MAGNI 3 (not Mani 3 which might not be an actual thing, but there is a Mani phono preamp), which, by the way, is an astonishingly great sounding little amp, built like a tank (albeit a very small tank).
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