Ayre V-5xe best tube pre-amp to match with?

Good to hear that you found a satisfactory way to upgrade your sound. If you like a particular manufacturer's sound, it makes sense to stay within the family. The approach of trying to compensate for one perceived weakness by finding a component with the "opposite" characteristic usually does not work, at least not predictaby. I like your approach of upgrading the existing components which you happen to like.

By the way, although I am a tube person, I do like the sound of Ayre gear even though they don't sound remotely like the tube gear I have.

Frankpiet,

I've heard the top-of-the-line Boulder linestage and phono stage in a system with other components which I have some familiarity. The system sounded very smooth, pure and sweet, but it also seemed to lack the dynamics and liveliness that are the hallmarks of the rest of the components. Because systems are tricky to evaluate, I cannot say that this is an inherent characteristic of the Boulder components. I am just bringing this up for you to consider when evaluating the Boulder integrated.

By the way, the flexibility, controllability and ease of use with the Boulder gear was up there at the very top (similar to Levinson, BAT and the VTL 7.5).