Best pre-amp with a C-J Premier 11a Amp

Thanks to George & others for suggestions. How about an Audible Illusions line stage?

How about an Audible Illusions line stage?

The 3A was a cracker in it’s day Ron, but the gain?? you will be down around 8-9 o’clock for big volume, it has over 18db of line gain, you hardly need any, and 3A's eat tubes, they run them hard.

I say, try the Schiit Freya, you can always send it back, if you don’t like it.

Cheers George

I used a cj premier 16lsII with a cj 11a and it was an excellent combination. You can't go wrong with a cj pre mated to a cj amp as system synergy will not be an issue and cj makes one of the finest pre-amps in the business.

Chuck 

CJ premier 16lLS has 26dB gain, relatively high but somewhat normal for CJ preamps. I wonder how much of the volume range you’re able to use before reaching ear splitting levels.
By the way, Schiit Saga might be a good option @$350 as well given it’s unity gain.

would agree with georgehifi, the 3A can sound good but is a pita to use. and those vol controls always get noisy over time.

I used to have a Prem 11a, ran it with the 3A, and a few others. Last pre I used with it was the PL Dialogue premium, which was a good match.

on the prem 11a, be sure to roll in some Shuguang nature sound outputs. they really brought the 11a to life.