Price: $19,500

Website: www.allnicaudio.com

Howard said: [K.S. Park] set out on the apparently more difficult road of transformerlessness and has created something special in the directly coupled L-9000 OTL/OCL preamplifier, which sounds exceptionally immediate, detailed, and captivating.

Read the SoundStage! Ultra review.

The gist: Far from another me-too tube preamplifier.