Please help me chose a tube preamp

I  second the Don Sachs DS-2 recommendation. Love mine, and you have a vast selection of options (XLR ins, remote volume control, and caps) to choose from. Start price is around $2k. I have owned many other tube preamps for 10x the price but this the last one I'll ever own. Throw in a good quad of CV-181s, or NOS Sylvanias, and you're good to go. These are hand-built to order and simply the best I've ever heard. They don't play well with sand amps, but then most tube preamps don't. Don's a pleasure to do business with.

I third the Don Sachs preamp. He is also honest and trustworthy, a pleasure to deal with.

I went from an Odyssey Candela to a Calypso Signature and was underwhelmed. I then bought an ARC Ref5SE, which lived up to the hype. Now I have a Ref6, which has also lived up to the hype.

A good friend in our audio clutch recently got the Octave HP500SE.  Wow!!  Love it!!!  They have the HP300SE if the HP is a bit outside of the budget.

My suggestion is to go out and buy what you like and not worry about what anyone else thinks.