Tube preamp recommendation ...

CJ and ARC are two very different animals from two opposite ends of the spectrum. The CJ will give you the musical and warmth that you seek, the ARC will give you the transparent and neutral that you seek.
If you are looking for something in between these two polar opposites, you might consider a previously recommended Joule Electra or a VAC Renaissance or Signature preamp.

Conrad Johnson Premier 16.

einstein the tube mk2, you can change all the 8 Philips Jans 6922 and 1 Tesla ECC82 by 8 NOS Mullard CV2493 or Telefunken E88CC, and 1 Telefunken ECC82 for the gain stage. for inputs, you have various options for NOS matched pairs like Philips E188CC 7308 D-getter tubes, NOS Mullard E188CC tubes, NOS Siemens CCa tubes, NOS Telefunken CCa or E288CC tubes. They are all superb and give you the best sound of tubes, an amp which you can keep forever.

Mystere CA-21 preamp. Beautifully engineered. Everything you are looking for and more at a very fair price.

Roscoeiii, I am confused about your use of the term “passive” in reference to the Dodd preamp. According to the sixmoons review, it has 2 tubes, an input impedance of 100k and output impedence of less than 200 ohms. What is passive?

Bob