Can any preamps for $2-3k touch Auregies-L?


I made a mistake and recently sold my Shindo Auregie-L out of frustration while dealing with room issues. Long story short, I've got some treatments in place and a new amplifier (Decware Torii 3) and things are sounding good, but--I suspect my Shindo could bring more to the table.

I prioritize tonal beauty and emotion over absolute linearity and resolution. I also tend to be a sucker for texture, harmonic density and micro/macro dynamics.

I suspect I'd be best off waiting for a Shindo to come up used, but I am open to alternatives.
gopher
Welp. I played with the auregies l on my torii in a friends rig today and we both seemed to prefer it without the shindo... At least on his gear.

Comparing my torii solo to his tubeguru.hu f2a push pulls, I felt the tg/shindo offered a bit more body and refinement. The torii had more transparency and I think with some tweaking of the bass knob it could have closed the gap.

The big difference in presentation was staging, more specifically soundstage width. My torii did fall behind there but I suspect the right pre could put it in the lead.
I decided my friend's system was different enough that Shindo really does need to be heard in my own rig--so I bought another Auregies-L.

Hopefully I'll see it by weeks end. I also have a Dodd Battery Buffer headed my way for experimentation and comparison with the Shindo.
To 213cobra

BTW:
the Valvet soulshine is now available as a 6sn7 version which uses two pairs of 6sn7. It's brand new and I already have the first unit here, it's called soulshine8 and cost $5990.

Blessings,
Alfred