Which preamps use 6922/6DJ8 tubes?

I totally get OP’s line of reasoning - don't think it's weird at all 😅

6922 is a great tube for line stages - better than 12AX7 / 12AT7 / 12AU7 imo. But if you’re looking to use valuable NOS, then you have to be wary of designs that use a LOT of matched 6922 - like older high end BAT, ARC, Sonic Frontiers units. BAT and ARC have moved onto 6H30, which is a fantastic line stage tube but without many opportunities for rolling. The lower-end Sonic Frontiers hybrid units used less tubes but IMO these aren’t worthy of holy grail 6922 (I did not like the SFL-1). I briefly had a BAT VK 5i that used a lot of 6922, and it was a pain to find quiet matched ones - not a great experience. I definitely wouldn’t stock it with holy grails.

VAC currently uses an interesting approach where they just use a single pair of 6922 in conjunction with Lundahl line transformers for I/O. That would be perfect for your use case, but most of their current preamp line is above your budget - though you might find a used Renaissance V for ~5K. VAC has used 12AX7 / 12AU7 in past preamps, so I’m not sure if they may have an older 6922 / transformer based preamp that would fit budget.

@strateahed

That’s funny how the AI text is pretty well written and seems confident, however it is totally wrong on the tube complements! Most of those cited units don’t use any 6922 at all. The ET-5 appears to use a single 6922, and yet the AI confidently states this as a pair. OP should be aware none of the other preamps in the list use any 6922.

Of all the preamps I’ve had, the ones with 6DJ8 have actually not been prone to microphonics issues. But I’ve had a 6SN7 preamp and another 6H30 pre that were extremely sensitive to it. The biggest trigger I’ve noticed is having too much gain. Once you get over 15dB gain, whatever the tube, you’re asking for trouble here.

Exactly @mulveling, excessive gain is to be avoided. Does Art Ferris still make his Audible Illusions Modulus pre-amp (which uses the 6DJ8 tube) with 30dB of gain (!) in the line stage?

@bdp24  30dB gain is "holy cow" territory lol. No wonder folks would complain about 6DJ8 being a microphonic tube if they had that unit!

It seems like there was a time (in the 90s?) when it was common to see full function preamps with an MM phono stage and a whopping 20+dB line gain. I’ve seen units from ARC and CJ spec’d like that. I guess the idea was you "could" run a Medium or even Low-output MC cartridge by filling in with line stage gain? Doesn’t work well, IME. Besides having way too much gain AFTER the attenuator (which causes noise issues for sensitive amps & speakers), I’ve not had good results feeding too small a signal into an RIAA stage and then trying to add the extra gain afterwards - dull, flat, lifeless sound.