Always long for (upgraded) first love: Sonic Frontiers Line 3

Well, I agree that CAT has a clean look that goes along with its clean transparent sound. You can’t go wrong with one and I’d imagine that since they are still in business, it would not be difficult to replace the aging parts like capacitors of needed.
The phono is what makes this legendary though since you get a built in not-the-after-thought awesome phono and eliminating additional pair of IC.

Well, Chris Johnson from Partsconnexion has Line 3 coming in and he offers for $2,500 with full inspection, testing and cleaning with replacement of all age related/sensitive materials and umbilical cord if worn out. With warranty to 1 year at this price, I decided to go for it.
With additonal $500, I can get 10 Siemens 6922 tubes, I might do that later.

SF preamps were great.  Like the remote too.  Only issue I (and others had) was that relays would get stuck sometimes. 

I only wonder how do updated Line 3's sound quality compared to modern tube preamp since I have not listened to new tube preamp in years.

@goldeneardoc, as a former owner of a Line 3 who then had it upgraded all the way to the SE plus status, plus I rolled countless number of tubes in all positions, the Line 3 retains it original character as you follow the upgrade path as a very very neutral preamp.  No one has ever described the Line series of preamps as lush.  If anything they are closer to a SS sound than tube.  

I tried everything to get the Line 3 sound right in my system.  It was a frustrating process which resulted in me selling it. Imho, there are countless number of modern preamp that better the Line 3 based on my listening preference.  YMMV, good luck.