What type of material do you tend to record? The difference between higher end preamps tend to be the colouration which they apply to the audio. This means it's all pretty subjective about what you like. If for example, you do a lot acoustic guitars or string work, I might say go with something transparent like the DAV BG1 (which I missed earlier - great suggestion T3). Alternatives to this might be the NPNG or Thermionic Culture Earlybird.
If you do say, rock material then IMO you are likely to want something coloured on most occaions. It then comes down to your colour preference. A Chandler TG2 for example will sound very different to an API (it will also sound very different to say the Chandler Germanium but that's a whole different subject). To make things more complicated yet, different pres tend to work well on different applications. I love the Germ on kick drum and heavy guitars for example but don't like it on snare or less heavy guitars. I love the API on toms but hate it on vocals. In the first instance I'd say that if you can't try before you buy then buy something that's a good all rounder like the RNP. The TG2 and MP2NV are both pretty flexible in that if you want coloured you can crank up the input gain and turn down the output but if you want something much cleaner you can do exactly the opposite. If I could only have one preamp it would be the Chandler TG2, hands down. As always, YMMV!
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