Which tube preamp meets all these needs?


There are so many tube preamps. Are there any that fit the following criteria?
1) Actually has a "tubey" sound (as opposed to really neutral sound like Audio Research).
2) Is fully balanced (all the rest of my components are and I'd like to continue to take advantage of this).
3) Has a HT bypass of some sort.
4) Has a remote that controls volume and switching sources (I was looking at BAT vk3ix, but that remote for some reason doesn't control source switching).
5) Can be had used for 2k or under.
Rest of system is Theta front end and amp, Snell speakers, Rel sub. Please help point me in the right direction. Thanks. -Dave
dbw1

Showing 1 response by dbw1

I suppose I can be a BIT flexible on #5 if that opens up the options. However, I'm confused by the BAT responders. The vk5i has a unity gain, I think, which is an HT bypass. However, I thought that the Bat vk3ix remote did not have source switching. It would be odd that the older 3i and 5i have it? What am I missing?

The Audio Horizons was recommended to me, but this isn't fully balanced. Thanks for the rec on Sunfire Bostonaudi, but I do want fully balanced. Should be possible in my price range (I hope). My current preamp (Simaudio P5) meets all of these criteria, I got it for under 2k, it's just not a tuber.

Thanks for the responses so far - keep the help coming please.
-Dave