So damn hard deciding which tube preamp to buy!


So you have $10 to $25k. What do u do??? So many names.  Cant test them cause no one nearby stocks them, and not broken in.  

What does one do??
emergingsoul
buy this ancient beauty

https://www.ebay.com/itm/224555999898?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=533...

ship to you, use it

or

have seller ship it directly to Audio Classics, let them check everything, and change all the RCA jacks to new gold plated ones. 

fabulous sounding FM tuner, and MM Phono 1 and 2.

Plug it into an Integrated with remote volume!
That's very nice Elliott, but he's apparently looking to breathe rarer air.
Preamp would be used with ht and with a mac 255 multichannel amp. Only using 3 of 5 channels.  


Ok, so you're going to apply the remaining 2 channels solely to audio.  Any reason you wouldn't have the McIntosh tube preamps at the top of your short list?
Noooo,  1 channel ctr and 2 mains. Means more watts avail for mains since its a 5 channel amp.  
Mac dont have a high end linestage, includes phonostage.  A flaw in their prod offerings