best preamp ever - cost is no object

Best? Who knows? In the end, how you react to a particular preamp will be a function of your tastes and the remainder of your system. I would also suggest that ease of use, reliability, ease of repair and dealer support should be considered. Also, do you need a unit which has balanced inputs and outputs? I owned a CTC Blowtorch for many years and was very pleased with the sound. I still feel that it is in the top three solid state units available, but it has no remote and cannot accept balanced inputs. More importantly, it lacks that last little bit of magic that tubed units seem to have. The solution for me was an Einstein preamp. It is tubed, retains the speed, detail, low noise and imaging of the Blowtorch but in addition has better, more impactful bass, better dynamics, is more three dimensional, better image density and tonally is truer to the sound. In addition, it has a very well thought out remote, balanced inputs and a balanced output. Is it the best preamp in the world? Who knows? But it is one of the very few units which I could live with long term. And it does have magic!

Best is a relative term dependent on your values and the remainder of your system. There is also is sometimes a synergy in using an amp and preamp from the same manufacturer. Cases in point: the Einstein preamp is quite good, especially with a bit of tube rolling, regardless of amp. Likewise their 60 watt OTL's are very good within their power limitations; however, the combination is clearly superior to either piece used with someone else's product. The same is true of the Audio Note M10 (which is clearly a candidate for best tube preamp as is the Einstein) and the Audio Note Kegon amps. The combination is magical within its power limits. In either case, the AudioNote/Einstein pairs will not sound good with the wrong loudspeaker or for that matter the wrong cabling. Rather than focusing on one piece of the system, it makes more sense to try to put together components that work well together. Many years ago I owned a Goldmund Reference TT with a T3F arm. At the time, it was perceived as the best that money could buy. All sorts of people wanted to speculate about other TT's that were "better than the Reference"; however, not a single one of them owned a Reference or had done actual real time comparisons of the Reference vs other contenders in the same system. Until you have done that, best is mere speculation. Albert Porter once told me that when he reviewed a new product that he literally spent months optimizing it in his system before making any judgments. About ten years ago, I had the opportunity to compare my Golmund to a Rockport in my home system. I bought the Rockport. Is it the "best" TT? Who knows? I can say that over the years, I have preferred it to other TT's that I have listened to in my home system; however, I have not heard many of the current top contenders in my own system.

Last weekend, a local tube maven brought a small sample of his wares (2 huge tupperware tubs) to a friend's home. The friend also owns an Einstein preamp. Neither of us has had anything but praise for the Einstein in the last year, but wondered if it could be improved even further by changing out the first stage input tubes and the single 12AU7 with something other than the Electro Harmonic tubes provided. The short answer is dramatically so in each case. Almost every NOS tube substitued made an audible improvement. In some cases, a dramatic improvement. Unfortunately the best 6922 variant proved to be a Siemens 7308 from the mid 1960's and the best 12AU7 was a CBS variant from the same period. Each was very expensive, particularly in the case of the input tubes in which 2 are required for each input, so basically over $1000 worth of tubes. The point of this short story is that even the best tubed preamp is probably limping along unless its tube compliment is optimized and a lesser unit with better tubes may sound better. This certainly complicates comparisons, at least, of tubed units.

Just a clarification with respect to my earlier comment. The Einstein has 5 inputs, 2 single ended and 3 balanced. Assuming 2-7308's per input (1 for each channel), that would equal 10-7308's for the $1000 that I quoted or approximately $100/tube, not $500 per tube. I should probably also mention that the same dealer had some very good NOS East German tubes for $19 each. These were significantly better than the stock Electro Harmonix tubes but not the equal of the Siemens 7308's. Whether the improvement was worth the money is a personal decision that will be different for different listeners.

The Einstein incorporates a number of novel design approaches. They do not have a selector switch because they believe that it is exactly at this point, prior to amplification, that the signal is weakest and most easily damaged. Instead, each input has a complete set of input tubes; however the heater voltage to the input tubes is only turned on when you are listening to that input so there is no tube wear. This means that you can customize the tubes on each source and that the expensive tubes only run when that input is chosen. The downside is that when you change inputs, there is a slight time lag as the existing input stops amplifying and then the new input as the heater comes on begins to amplify, so no immediate switching. Please feel free to contact by email and I can provide a phone number if you have additional questions about the Einstein. I previously owned a CTC Blowtorch.