Western Electric Phono Preamp - Good?

I haven’t heard the preamp but I can say the name “Western Electric” is highly misleading. This preamp has nothing whatsoever to do with the classic Western Electric designs from past decades. One glance at the inside makes that clear—-the new unit is chock full of Hovland film capacitors. The highly regarded WE gear from years ago use paper in oil capacitors which sound quite different from Hovlands. And many of the real WE designs use transformers for coupling instead of so many capacitors. The new unit is also full of metal film resistors whereas the vintage gear uses Allen Bradley carbon composition resistors which sound quite different. Lastly the new unit uses tubes that the real WE gear never used.

Bottom line: the new unit is basically just another modern tube design that has nothing in common with true Western Electric gear except the name.