What's your "diminishing returns" preamp choice?

Tubegroover, I appreciate your suggestion. I will try to check out the Odyssey Candela. I'm looking for a very transparent and accurate preamp. One that conveys all the detail and nuance of recordings. Also, it must be fast enough to accurately reproduce fundamental notes of percussion. If all this could be combined with a bit of warmth and a 3d soundstage that tubes yield, it would be ideal.

I have tried the no preamp approach. While I do see some of the benefits of doing this, I overall prefer having a preamp. To my ears, having a preamp does add a slight bit of distortion but yields better dynamics and brings out more details of recordings. The trade off is worth it in my opinion.

Thanks to all for the useful info.

I use a Passive DIY built clone of a Music First Baby reference, which is excellent for detail and transparency, but lacks the last bit of slam and dynamics. I recently bought an ex Dem Modwright 36.5, which is marginally better because of the extra said slam. I am surprised nowone mentioned Modwright, which seems to produce value across it's range, not cheap, but good value. It certainly betters the ARC Ref 3, I tried in my system a while ago.

Going back 10 years, before I went integrated, the Conrad Johnson Premier 17 was pretty darn good. I suspect that, older generation of CJ amps could still give most modern Pre's, stiff competition.

David your comment about older generation cj preamps is interesting and timely in my case. I recently purchased a PV9 from the estate of a recently fallen audio friend at a very good price. He supposedly had work done on it but looking inside it appears stock, so I don't know what. Having owned both a PV7 and PV5 in the 80's I've always been a fan of the CJ. What I like about the PV9, much better than the other two with the huge power supply is the 3D layering of instruments and a natural tonality, more of a mid hall presentation than upfront/direct which I also like. The older CJ components I've listened to all seem to have this characteristic. The only issue with this unit is that it just doesn't resolve everything in the manner of a newer design although there is much to like otherwise. I am considering upgrading to better teflon/polypro coupling and filter caps to see where it might go. The only issue is cost vs gain since there is no way of knowing the end results and recapping will not be cheap. Factory upgrades to teflon would be quite expensive, more than I would want to pay. The big consideration here is the phono stage is included, a big plus since that was the main focus on this unit when it was introduced.

Has anyone ever heard a bottlehead beepre? I've been intrigued by 300 B preamps for quite some time and loved the DIY aspect of the hobby. So I really been thinking about giving the bottle head A try.

I use a Passive DIY built clone of a Music First Baby reference, which is excellent for detail and transparency, but lacks the last bit of slam and dynamics.

This quote by David12 is something I have heard many others say about passives and is consistent with what I personally hear from the two resistor-based passives I own.

I have owned some 20'ish preamps in the $3-10K price range, including many of which are still current models. For me, the merry-go-round stopped with my McCormack TLC-1 that Steve McCormack at SMc Audio upgraded/rebuilt with the single goal of providing the best sound possible. It is now a zero-gain, balanced, buffered-active preamp with an outboard choke power supply, Lundahl transformers, Jensen copper foil caps and a Shallco discrete-resistor volume control with Audio Note resistors. It has a new black faceplate and is pictured on the SMc Audio website and on my A'gon virtual system page. It just kills every other preamp I have owned. I highly recommend you give Steve a call and discuss your options. One of the best audio purchases I have made.