Best Preamp under 10K

First Sound, lots of quality and extreme performance for the money. I would put MKIII (current entry level-retail $5400) against any pre-amp up to $10K.

Another factor is the synergy of the other components in your system.

A lot of good recommendations in this thread. My short list is VAC Renaissance and Ayre K-1xe. Others that I am intrigued by:

Burmester 035 (or 011)
Hovland HP 200
Conrad Johnson ET-5
VTL TL-6.5
Wyetech Opal

The Hovland, CJ, and Wyetech do not have balanced outputs so I am more reluctant to pursue those...

The First Sound pre-amps are awesome. The MKIII (current entry level model @ retail $5400)will perform with any pre-amp up to $10K easily.

Supratek Cabernet Dual in a minute

Musical Design.