Mikelavigne, in your post regarding the sonics of the new DarTZeel Preamp you stated that it was the first preamp, compared to 15 other reference level preamps you had auditioned, that was superior to the Placette passive line stage. What a great complement both to Guy Hammel the designer/builder and the piece itself. You are comparing a $1500.00 linestage to a $19000.00 linestage! It BETTER sound MAGNIFICENT and be a qualitative shift for the extra $17500.00. In my system I have a Placette active dual mono linestage which I think is a great bargain at $4500.00. I too auditioned about 10 preamps, both tube/solidstate, and thought the Placette had many virtues and no downside, so it was a keeper. It's all personnal taste and synergy, so their's no right or wrong, so if your affluent enough to spend what ever you want for whats really a slight change or different "flavor" bless you. I'm sure the DarTZeel ranks with some of the best reference preamps out there, it should for $19000.00, however for us not as affluent audiophiles, we try to get the greatest performance for the the least amount of bucks. So, based on quality of construction/performance vs. cost I think I'll be sticking to Mr. Hammel's linestage, unless maybe I win the lottery so cost becomes irrelevant and I can buy anything I want regardless of cost compared to performance. Now, you boys can go back and fight with each other about who's telling the truth and who has the BEST toys in the world.
