I'm pretty happy w/ the Mapleshade Ultra4SE. I have the old regular Monos (green board) w/ cap upgrade. Smooth full sound, and good dimension. Dead quiet on linestage, but a bit of hiss and low end rumbly noise on phono at higher gain. It's a bargain for the quality, and you can save even more w/ the linestage version (Ultra 2). Does have a quirky vintage look, which you will probably either love or hate.
I tried a more than 3x the price ARC tube pre and wasn't very impressed. Nothing wrong w/ it, but it just didn't wow me. In fact, I thought the SS Tempest sounded better in most areas. The Tempest is actually a very good sounding pre. Mine just needs a minor repair, and I wanted to give tubes a try on the cheap which is why I got the Mapleshade. I need to get the gang at Odyssey to fix my Tempest and do a proper shootout.