Used tube preamps, Cary, AR, Aesthetix, Wells...........or?

Audio-GD tube preamps are the best value ...they are very musical .

I owned & really like the Aesthetix Calypso 15 years ago. It was very well built & sounded excellent in Avantgarde Duo system then. I owned an AR preamp  100 years ago which sounded good but developed issues & I sold it. I think their build quality improved after that. 

Balanced inputs/output isn’t really about gain, it’s the natural noise rejection due to positive/negative/ground. The lowered the noise floor, the more details you can hear (theoretically). This is one of the reasons recording studios are using balanced connections only. Now in typical hifi the noise levels are so low already that it becomes a moot point. You may see some benefits with longer interconnects however

immatthewj

I don't find the added gain when using the balanced circuit in & out to be an advantage at all. 

Look at it this way: if you keep the output level the same, you're gaining a 6dB improvement in S/N.

I live with it because in my system (using an SLP 05) I find that it sounds better using the balanced versus the single ended.  

Less noise!

I had an amp that sounded better using XLR inputs.  It used a jensen transformer on the XLR input.  There is no inherent difference between them signal wise so any difference in sound is related to how each one is implemented in the amp.  XLR may sound better in one amp, and RCA in another.  I had my custom amp built with RCA inputs.

@billpete I listen in a small room and I would actually like to utilize more real estate on the volume knob. So using RCAs helps with that, but at the risk of misusing some cliches, I find that using the balanced circuit with my preamp produces more "bloom." Therefore I elect to live with the unwanted gain so I can have the "bloom."

I don’t use a preamp so I don’t stay up on them. but my DAC serves as a preamp. It accomodates several different types of tubed and currently I’m using 300Bs in it. I highly recommend a preamp with DHT output tubes. If you can’t find one, Aric or Apollo will be glad to make one for you.

My signal path had 3 DHTs in it:  300B to 801A to AD1.

Jerry

Pretty much the way I look at it. More gain (if it isn't needed), seems rather pointless. If it sounds better, is it because of the gain or does it actually sound better? My systems have always gotten better sounding as they got louder, at least to a point. At some point, it comes down to diminishing returns and "too loud" is not better. My speakers are a bit power hungry and I've been heavy on power since the mid 70's, never having efficient speakers to drive.

I hear about these systems that are very efficient and people are getting by with  very low power class A systems. I'm sure it can be great, I've just never had such a system. Getting by is probably poor terminology as these folks are not just getting by and this is their end goal. I'd like to hear such a system sometime. I probably just never have. I live in the middle of nowhere so no nice salons around. Been a long time since I went to a high end audio place. So...........I come here.

Most of what I've read says that you gain 6 db in gain. Is that the only advantage or is that even an advantage? 

I don't find the added gain when using the balanced circuit in & out to be an advantage at all.  As a matter of fact, I would rather have less gain.  But I live with it because in my system (using an SLP 05) I find that it sounds better using the balanced versus the single ended.