What preamp for Lamm M1.2 ?

If your L2 sounded muddy and dark, I suspect the power supply tube needs replacement or adjustment. The voltage setting can deviate quite easily particularly with an old tube causing the sound to be off. Read your owner's manual for directions. When the L2 is working properly, it is quite neutral and transparent.

I belive he ment LL2 Deluxe, not L2.

Elberoth2, for what it's worth, I was in your situation 6 months ago looking for a great preamp and the best I found was the Lamm L2. As you mentioned, it doesn't have a remote and worse, the power supply tube often needs replacement and/or adjustment. If you can get over these issues, it's a good choice. There is something very right about this combo, tonality, transparency, and speed. It's just about perfect but if there's a flaw, it's a little mechanical sounding, at least to my ears.

Ethannnn,

Did you have a chance to compare the L2 to the cheaper LL2 Deluxe ? I know that the LL2 is much cheaper, but it is also an all tube design and as such it appeals to me more than the L2 which is a hybrid.

I have listened to the two of them at lemgth. If I had not heard the L2, I would have thought that the LL2 was their best line stage. To my ears, the L2 is just a bit more refined in the highs, more neutral and extended in the deep bass (the LL2 has just a slight bloat in the bass that makes it a little "warmer" sounding and in some cases perhaps more pleasant-sounding, particularly if you don't have true full-range speakers), and overall perhaps a little better at layering in a soundstage, i.e., a little better at presenting low-level detail spatial cues. While the L2 is solid state in its signal path, it sounds tonally like a tubed preamp, so I would not be deterred by that aspect.