Vicki. I originally made JLM's with OEP trannies and the 99v op amp. I thought the sound was a bit midrangey and a litte telephone like but still very clear and it was nice. Then I decided to build another and thought I would give the JLM 1:4 input tranny a go. In a curious way, I was slightly apprehensive about using the JLM 1:4 originally. Strangely, beucase it wasn't a "big name" tranny I assumed it wouldn't be as nice as the OEP, Lundahl,Carnhill etc etc.
Well I remember testing the unit out to check it was working and holy hell!!!!! I heard another preamp of its own that to me blew the previous OEP made one out of the water. So much more extended bass and treble. Now some people may argue that that extra bass and treble may be actually a nusiance in certain scenarios - eg if you have a crowded mix and you need to actually eq cut those freuqencies out. But as far as listening to a vocal track in isolation with this JLM 1:4 and 99V combo during my test, it totally blew me away. It still does. I wish I had used this configuration before and now my OEP configued one seems kind of redundant.
On another note, and not sure if/how this will fit in your case, but - something about buidling a r.e.d - 47 is intirging me. The JLM was the pre I thought I would never need to replace and for that matter I wont- however - in keeping with your grass is always greener analogy, guess my 47 intrigue is akin to this. It may be that I build a 47 and then decide that I am still devoted to the JLM.