Tube or Solid State Pre Amp - which did you choose
- Thread starter MC352
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Jim
I have had the 911 but mated with the Burmester 011 preamp .. Have you tried that?
Although I favor all tubes , I am a tube preamp - SS amp user in the hot days of Summer. So I am now using my ARC's with a Classe power amplifier. But to compensate I am temporally hosting a pair of Wilson Audio MAXX3. They really sound quite different from the Soundlab's.
Although I favor all tubes , I am a tube preamp - SS amp user in the hot days of Summer. So I am now using my ARC's with a Classe power amplifier. But to compensate I am temporally hosting a pair of Wilson Audio MAXX3. They really sound quite different from the Soundlab's.
Hi Microstrip...how do they sound different? Appreciate your insights...i have never heard Soundlabs, but heard lots of great things about them. thanks.
It is still too early to comment on it - may be in a few weeks I will be able to answer your question. I am now taking some acoustic panels that were used to control the back lateral reflections from my room.
yes, agree...though i have more often heard of tube pre and SS amp...something about voicing of the pre and the deep bass strength, unflappable power of SS. just an observation...i respect there are many ways to audio nirvana.
in fact, so i can learn more...what SS pre and tube amp are you running?
ARC LS3 and VT-100. One benefit of doing it the opposite way with a tube pre is less money in tubes. But I find my 1.6s have better midrange with tubes powering them although the Musical Fidelity A5 sounded great.
I just picked up a McIntosh C2300---so put me in the tube preamp club.
If I used tube amps, I probably would actually get a ss preamp. While not as common, I feel it is the superior combination--because tube preamps really don't get that huge tube sound.
If I used tube amps, I probably would actually get a ss preamp. While not as common, I feel it is the superior combination--because tube preamps really don't get that huge tube sound.
I owned the C2300 and it's as close as you can come to having a tube preamp with six 12AX7s that sounds like a SS preamp that I'm aware of. I would say that the ARC LS-17 isn't far behind it though. It just uses a lot fewer tubes in order to pull off its imatation of a SS preamp.
Like most others my first preamp was solid state. A Dynaco built from a kit, replaced by SAE (solid state) and then moved up to my "last" preamp a (solid state) late 1970's positively reviewed Technics dreadnaught with two phono inputs having adjustable capacitance and input sensitivity, dual treble and bass controls with frequency rollover conturing and other bells and whistles. It was replaced by a basic bare to the bones Conrad Johnson PV-3 tube preamp that I came across by chance at a yard sale. It cost 1/16 what I had payed for the Technics new.
The first LP played through the C-J was a rough UK Columbia pressing of Count Basie's "One More Time". Heaven! It seemed so real to me that I felt like I was in the recording studio.
There will be no turning back!
The first LP played through the C-J was a rough UK Columbia pressing of Count Basie's "One More Time". Heaven! It seemed so real to me that I felt like I was in the recording studio.
There will be no turning back!
I had it and had it again when I flipped the other way and went back to SS. Once I first heard tubes, it made me allergic to anything that was SS. In my audio belief system, there was no place for SS. Now there is almost no place for tubes. The only tubes left in my system are my Ampex 350s which I find imperative for tape play back. For now, I'm done with tubes working me all of the time. It's time now to let SS work me over for awhile.
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