What is the single best pre amp you have ever hear


I am not here to sell anything. I am a speaker manufacturer and had the opportunity to show at Capital Audio Fest with David Berning. David is an amazing man whom I respect greatly Even more amazing are his electronics. I heard his ZOTL ZH-30 amplifier and concluded it was the best sounding mid powered amp I have ever heard regardless of price. By best I mean able to play all types of music well. Back to preamps. Some preamps add this or that or sound euphoric or slow the tempo of music. This only shows up as you play other types of music At the show I was totally spoiled by the ZOTL Pre one preamp honesty. I thought it had the best timing and speed of transistor and musicality of tubes of anything I have heard to date. I would have to say it is on my top three list of best sounding preamps regardless of price. It is also the least expensive, nearly half the price of the others. Please before you respond try to have a listen to this extraordinary preamp. Let me know if you agree or disagree Thanks for you opinions Ralph
128x128hi_fi_ralph
Like Atmasphere, I too would have to say our own Purity Audio Design pieces. There are other preamps I do like and dislike which aided in the design of ours.

Preamps I do like include; Shindo, Audio Note as well as some of the new upper end solid state units. There is a lot of good gear out there.
Conrad Johnson ART is my best so far. Their ACT 2.2 is close.

A big factor in trying to name "a" best is the road that leads from that preamp i.e. amp>speakers>room>ears. I've used these pres with ss,tubes,tripath chip type amps and with Magnepans,med-eff and hi-eff speakers and have enjoyed the outcome every time.
The best I have heard so far is our own, but of course I should be expected to say that. I like it because there are no coupling caps at the output, unusual in a tube preamp. This makes it very fast with very deep bass.

Other preamps that I also like a lot:
DeHavilland, ARC REF Anniversary, Aesthetix Signature, CAT and the Lamm. I'm also a big fan of the H/K Citation 1.
While I chose ARC, ARC don't got "soul". CJ preamps got "soul", could anyone elaborate on other preamps.
The FM Acoustics 266. I have not heard S McCormack's "virtual reality engine" (VRE), but look forward to it soon.
Audio Research Reference 5 SE and the latest iteration of Mark Levinson No. 326S. Haven't heard the Berning.
I've heard several Berning amps and while I'll say they were good they didn't make me run out and buy one.
On your pre-amp question, the best I've heard is the SMc VRE-1b, simply stunning. I had a Kondo M1000 ( over $95,000 retail) and the VRE was much more 3 dimensional sounding and musical that I quickly sold the Kondo.

(Dealer disclaimer)
Dunno.

Based on cost/build quality, probably recent top of the line Audio Research REf pre-amp or similar VTL, or MBL maybe.

Based on sound quality, that's a hard one! The sound quality performance of a good pre-amp is largely determined by the overall system it is used in. Also, features play an important role in best pre-amp for each case or individual. People value different things there which is why there are so many.

I will say that I have heard top notch sound quality from a variety of pre-amps at various price points in recent years, starting with some that can be had for not much.