Best Line Stage Preamp?

HANDS DOWN THE MESSENGER PREAMP.

I'm currently driving my Caanry power amps with an Audion Premier line stage. It uses a pair of 6922s, and has seen off a couple of good SS units and a transformer-based passive in my system. It's not crazy money, either.

If you've got bux, think about the CTC Blowtorch.

Hard to answer "best" type questions, since most people's sampling of available products is small or shortlived. I can say that I love my CAT Ultimate and prefer it to some preamps I have owned in the past, including: Audible Illusions 3A, McCormack Passive (TL1?), and several ARC preamps I have used in the past. You need to make auditions with CAT on your must listen list.

I am surprised that we don't see brands listed here such as

Audible Illusions
Conrad Johnson
or VTL.

Any praise for these?

I've had both the passive and active Placettes (I think I may have actually bought one from Stehno) and there has never been a problem with dynamics. I was amazed how just the bass extension and dynamics improved with even the passive. If you are careful with cables and vibration sources using them, you will be amply rewarded.

First Sound Paramount Special Edition.