New to Preamp - Preamp suggestion around 10k

Honestly, I would stay away from the Cary SLP-05. It is a massive unit and too “tubey” sounding to the point that it loses the holography. It also doesn’t have a very low noise floor, which is very important for headphones. 

My pics would be:

PS Audio BHK Preamp - can be had used for $3500 or less. Hybrid tube input stage. Fully balanced topology. Incredible imaging and tone across the board. 

Audio Mirror Linea - this delivers a more liquid, organic and warm sound while still retaining a good amount of detail. In my opinion the best bang for the buck if you are truly looking for a barebones solution. It’s $3K new and only has three sets of single ended inputs and one set of outputs.

I’ve heard both units beat out other preamps exponentially more expensive than them. 

@cming0038 : Hi, if I were looking for a new preamp in the $10K or less price range the Aric Audio Motherlode II or the Barkert Labs Rythm would be on my short list. Good hunting. Jeff

I was in your shoes recently and I went with an ALLNIC L-6500 and love it!

Thank you @blisshifi @yoby @ervikingo for your great suggestions! Now I remember PS Audio and Backert are occassionally mentioned on here as well.

Considering I live in Asia region, it seems that Audio Mirror and Aric Audio are out of my reach for audition sadly...I might be able to try out PS Audio and Allnic given that there are distributors here.

As for Backert, even though there's not a demo, it's good that you can return the preamp within 14 days in case not satisfied. I will try to contact them and see if they provide shipping service across half the earth haha.

@ervikingo could you share more about your experience with the L-6500? Would love to have some understanding about it before I get the chance to audition!

Thanks again!!​​

The Aesthetix Pallene should be added to your list...