Conrad Johnson vs Audio Research vs BAT vs Cary

why not try the Quicksilver Full function tube pre amp it has a 12 0hm or lower output Imp
Cheers Johnnyr

Well, CJ for me was way too smooth and lacking openess, the Cary was nicely Detailed but almost too clinical and close to solid state for my tastes. I ended up preferring the Cayin A88T myself with SED KT88 power tubes, Mullard CV-569 (ECC35, 6SL7s), and RCA CV-231 (6SN7s). Wonderful front row live performance sound. Best of all I tried. By the way, for me, I found lowering the bias from the recommended 400mV to 336 an improvement.

"Threshold is only 600 ohms. Any CJ, ARC, or Cary run through the RCA inputs will be fine"

I don't think any of the Cary preamps would be a good match based on the impedence issues. The 98 spikes up to 6,800 ohms for its output impedence at 20 Hz. (according to the Stereophile tests).

This is a very low impedence at the Threshold and will make impedence matching very difficult for most preamps. I would do a search as to what others have had success with running their Threshold, particularly questioning the LFE performance. I would automatically be skeptical of anybody saying their bass is great when such an extreme mismatch is so apparently obvious.