Recommend The Best No Frills Preamp up to $5K.

de Havilland Mercury preamp is really good.  Kara took mine in, did a major cap upgrade and it sang.  Checked all of the boxes.  Only reason I do not still have it, not fast enough for active speakers.  Otherwise, it rocked.  Had a big sound for tubes. Also fun to own an outlier piece.  Kara was great to work with.  Good hunting.

I’d really bone up on 6922 tube preamps.

Simply due to where the cost of quality tubes has gone. 
$500 a tube is a bit extreme. IMHO. 

The best value in hi-fi...Audio GD HE-1 XLR 10 tube preamp. ....smooth as silk sound

used Pass Labs and Audio Research 

Lab 12 pre 1