From the archives of Old-Man-Shakes-Fist-At-Clouds:
My best preamp is a B&K Sonata MC101. Strengths include an effective range of inputs, including phono (which I use). It also has tape loop and a separate EQ loop. The line amplifier can be bypass to make it a passive switcher (except for the phono preamp). It has tone controls but they can be bypassed. For weaknesses, it uses standard (but good quality) pots for volume and balance controls, so there is some resistor noise. The headphone amp is separate and decent. It can be had with balanced outputs, but I never see that feature implemented in them, so I built a separate balanced-output converter using THAT chips.
I have preamps from SAE (a P102), Adcom (a GFP 555 and a GFP 565), Onkyo (a 3040), and a Kenwood C1. I like the B&K the best, but I doubt I could hear a difference in a blind test.
For me, a preamp has to provide switching for phono, one or two CD players, a tuner (which I use), a dac from a computer, a quality cassette deck and a quality open-reel deck that are sometimes used for old media. For the tape decks and to provide a separate output for an external headphone amp, I use a dbx400 switching center.
All that is the exact opposite of what young audiophiles would find necessary or acceptable in their minimalist applications.
Rick "whose wife looks at the stereo stack and just rolls her eyes" Denney