Like many things in life, the better ones devote more attention to detail - both in their manufacture/design and their sound. I have upgraded my tube preamps from a Quad 22 (say 150 USD now) to a Verdier Control B with valve PSU (2300 GBP 4000 USD) to my current Tron Meteor (6000 GBP 11000 USD - replaced by the New TRON Syren - www.tron-electric.com). The mass of the preamps has increased considerably to reflect the better PSUs. However, more is not always better. It is important to get the details in the design correct - good quality power supplies, top grade or bespoke components. short signal paths which are correctly aligned to minimise noise etc. Inevitably this costs money and time. My Tron Meteor preamp took over 70 hours to build and weighs several times that of the Verdier let alone the Quad.
So what do I hear - very little! It's as if all the grain in the sound has been removed. The sound is transparent without noise. Soundstaging is natural and the Tron makes everything sound more like real music. That's what it's all about.
the rest of my system is
Platine Verdier Schroeder 2 Allaerts MC1B, Quad IIs (GT Audio rebuilt), Avantgarde Duos with PHY-HP cabling
So what do I hear - very little! It's as if all the grain in the sound has been removed. The sound is transparent without noise. Soundstaging is natural and the Tron makes everything sound more like real music. That's what it's all about.
the rest of my system is
Platine Verdier Schroeder 2 Allaerts MC1B, Quad IIs (GT Audio rebuilt), Avantgarde Duos with PHY-HP cabling