Best 3 tube preamps under $18000?


I will be pleased to know your opinion, about which can be the 3 best tube preamplifiers, with a price, NEW, under $18.000. I want to use them with SS amplifiers.
emigene
Agree with Pubul57. Good AVC or TVC passive may beat any active preamp (price no object) in the right system of course.
Otherwise I`d be tempted by Concert Fidelity. This along with Silicon Arts and FM Acoustics are supposed to be the very best in the market.
No-one has mentioned the TRON Syren yet. Fabulous tube pre-amp built to order (and hence can be bespoke)by Graham Tricker in the UK (www.tron-electric.co.uk).
Atma-Sphere MP-1 or an MFA MC Reference if you can find one. Specifically for use with digital and phono. If you don't have a vinyl front end then please disregard, as that has been my experience.
My $0.02
I would recommend the McIntosh C500T..at around $12,000 USD,retail
Fully balanced design...Full function with excellent MM/MC phono stages.
Hello and thanks to all that have posted his opinions, in relation to the passive preamp , I used-owned the best Bent model and the excellent expensive audio consulting, is not the way for me, another way is to use the dCS as preamp, for me is posible if you don´t use very good preamps, but always that I compared this solution with a excellent preamp, I have seen that this is not the solution.
Surprise by the ausence of names as CJ, Kondo, Vacuum state and for so much presence of the ref5, I never heard it, but the ref3 , for me and sorry for the people who owned, owns or like this preamp, is a very good preamp, but not exceptional, because for me it don´t have the soul that you can hear with Kondo, Connoisseur(SS), perhaps in the appropiate system with FM, Soulution, Boulder, Sovereign..
Then surely I need to explain more what I´m looking for: one preamp that sounds as this that I think that are excellents preamps, but tube preamp and with a very good price, is this a chimera- pipe dream?
I have a small list of contenders, but surely they are so small brands, that is practically imposible to hear them:
New Aestethix top of the line
SAS
Dodd
Wavac
Doshi
Wyetech opal
Audiospace
Nat audio

Then I hope that one of you can say: this is a lot less expensive and as good as the more expensives ones