I've never done any scientifically controlled double blind listening tests set-up to compare pre-amps. (Not the same as A/B tests - of which yes, I have sat in variety of listening rooms and compared pre-amps and amps over a period of thirty years or so.)

I have sat in on double blind speaker listening tests on a number of occasions with Floyd Toole and his team while they were at Canada's National Research Council of Canada and helping to establish Canada's loudspeaker industry. But maybe that doesn't count. (And I'm just dropping names. Hey one man's Floyd Toole is another's Krell Evolution. )

To repeat (and expand), I have never heard any difference in "musicality" between two solid state pre-amps (mostly because I still have no idea what that actually means)playing in unprocessed stereo mode - assuming that both are functioning as designed (and have inaudible noise and distortion and flat frequency response - which should be a given for anything in just about any price range.) Perhaps they do sound different to some - but as I said I'd hate to be cursed with that affliction. I mean if the difference in apparent sound from two pre-amps was enough to concern me, just imagine how I'd react to differences in two speakers' sound or, heaven forbid, room acoustics!

As I have also stated in past posts on this forum and others, I certainly have heard very significant differences in how multi-channel processed sound sounds - where there are many more variables that come into play.

But unless the new 997 has some serious shortcoming in stereo mode in terms noise, distortion, or non-flat frequency response, it's a complete non-issue in my purchasing decision.

I certainly appreciate your opinion.