which preamp

Neither. In that price range I would go for a good 2nd hand Aesthetix Janus Signature then upgrade it with Jupiter copper foil in wax caps & NOS tubes like Grannyring. Best bang for the buck "under $25k" imho.

Zd542,

I agree about listening to a preamp before buying it. But it is not just a matter of tube products and risk. If you don't roll the right tubes in the preamp you may think you have a dud where you may actually have a jewel -- if you only knew.

SABAI,I have PS AUDIO DSD dac, great detail I am sure you will love it,what amp do you have, my are wyred4 sx1000 mono"s which AUDIO HORIZONS preamp TP 2.3 the dsd has balanced and single ended outputs

"I agree about listening to a preamp before buying it. But it is not just a matter of tube products and risk. If you don't roll the right tubes in the preamp you may think you have a dud where you may actually have a jewel -- if you only knew.
Sabai (Reviews | Threads | Answers | This Thread)"

While its possible that something like that can happen, I don't see why a demo would be any less important. Also, most people don't roll tubes, and its highly unlikely that you'll demo a new tube product at an authorized dealer with anything other than stock tubes in it.

Rough buying a tube pre unless you have a tube tester.
On and off swaping of 8 tubes to find the one that has developed a hisssssss is hard on your system and YOUR system.