What'sBest Deal Tube PreAmp New or Used?

Very slim pickings for a decent tube pre amp at the $400. level.You might find a decent passive at that price.Hold out and save $600.and you can get yourself some pretty decent tube gear that will also hold the same resale value such as an Anthem Pre1L or a Sonic Frontiers SFL-1 .Keep searching the ads and best of luck !

Lihifiguy is right on about the Sonic Frontiers SFL-1. At $500. to 650. used, it is an excellent pre-amp. Stereophile Class B in its day-- it only has one tube but yields genuine "tube" qualities that can be easily (and cheaply) changed to suit your taste with aftermarket tubes, eg NOS. I used the SFL-1 for 3 years. Good Hunting. Craig

The PV-10 or the Anthem sound good to me. The Anthem will sound more like solid state than the CJ.

Perhaps, but it will not be as analytical and cold as s/s preamps.The one that I had in my system and in its price range basically did the best of both worlds.I replaced it with an SFL-1 Signature that had more detail and did everything else just a tad better.Then I replaced that with the latest version of the Audible illusions M3A.BTW,what most do not know is that each year the M3A goes through multiple refinement upgrades.On the other side of the coin their service is nothing to right home about.Happy listening.

I know I'm a little late to the party, but I'll give another recommendation (fourth one?) for the SFL-1. As the others have said, it's well worth it to stretch your budget a little in order to have more options. The SFL-1 holds its worth very well, so if you don't like it you can get your money back. Plus there's only one tube to change for easy tube rolling. I've seen a couple here for $700 and one for $650. Good Luck.

I guess we're in unison, the Sonic Frontiers SFL-1 gets the call. I've never seen such agreement on this board. I got mine for $495 more than one year ago. I'm very happy with it; I just wish it were remote-compatible.

Go with the CJ PV10. I've had one for about 5 years - was Stereophile class B. It is warm and definitely "tubey" which I prefer, I've got it mated with a Classe CA 200 with MIT Shotgun IC's and am very happy. Got my eyes set on possibly the CJ 16LS but in the meantime this combo is very musical with a nice bottom end, excellent midrange and smooth extended highs. Right in your price range used.

Try a Rogue 66

Saying you solved your amp problems buy going ss is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.