John Hardy's with the Jensen transformers are nice on the 414 b/uls. A 414's kind of a spitty sounding mic - I don't have any experience with the TLII version, which is supposedly warmer. Some iron in the chain helps warm things up a bit and make them sound fuller. I'd stay away from cheapo tube pre's. A tube pre that uses a tube to actually amplify rather than just buzz will give you better results.

Dan

Try a quality tube pre with the Royer, such as a DW Fearn, Pendulum MDP-1A, Universal Audio 2610 or Manley (with extra gain).
--
Stephen Boyke

Groove Tubes VIPRE for the Royer.

Boy that is rather vauge? I could list over 2-dozen that would be great for those. It would depend more on what other gear you currently have, what type of music and instruments they will be mostly used on, as well as your mixing style and recording goals such as if you prefer colored or non colored signal path and other such details.

Fortunately the Royer has a lot of gain for a ribbon mic.And really its hard to name a favorite for either mic since both are great sounding and very distinctive.Someone mentioned the DW Fearn....Its a BOATLOAD of money but NOTHING should be allowed to sound that good.It really doesnt matter what you use with it, its gonna work....As is the Vipre...NOTHING sounds bad with it....Even a radioshack mic will sound good with either one.