Phono/preamp/amp chain. One of them tube the others SS. Which one?

Not all devices, and not all systems are equal, of course. Some only listen to vinyl "seriously" others like me are all about music that fits on a memory device somewhere.

However, based on past experience, I'd say the preamp should be tube, and I don't know enough about vinyl to say what I'd do with the phono.

The issue that has come up a few times in my life has been tube amps faced with a very difficult load, such as an electrostatic. Swapping out the amp for a solid SS was a fabulous combination. In fact, in the Electrostatics I did hear, a tube preamp was ideal. I helped sell a couple of pairs of speakers that way. :)

Best,


Erik

My vinyl goes to a solid state phono, and from there to a computer interface, and then to the computer.

My "Geek" took care of the computer interface, and the computer card that down loads it into the computer.

A great advantage of doing things this way, is that I only have to handle a record once. After that I can set up a play list for my 2 track Technics reel, and that playback yields an improvement; and at the expense of so much tape, it should.

While people who don't know will tell you that something will be lost with this kind of setup; recently, people who know, confirmed the results I've been getting; all the nuances of vinyl are revealed on playback; what ever your cartridge puts out, that's what you will get.

I have a modified Audible Illusions 3A pre, that feeds into PrimaLuna Mono Blocks. Although the end result of all of this is quite neutral, I get every nuance of the LP. No, I don't use the phono on the Audible Illusions.

This is what I have and I like it, the solid state phono is dead silent, but puts out only what you put in.

Although I've often read about these great tube phonos, like Herron for example, I've never heard one; consequently I don't know what improvement you would get over one which duplicates whatever cartridge you use.



A tube pre, and solid state amp work quite well together, but personally I would not have a solid state pre.




Enjoy the music.

As a general 'open' question it depends on all the aforementioned 'depends'. And additional ones, such as budget.

My preference; I use a tube preamp with SS amp. I believe I get the most tube value in way of bloom and soundstage  from this approach, given my system and budget.  

Tube high gain devices are noisy by nature so phonostage is great either solid state or hybrid such as AudioResearch PH3 or similar.
I join anyone who likes tube preamps.
To my tastes and demands of higher volumes tube amp must be BIG, but when outside is over 100f, you try to save every cool square inch of your dwelling.

If limited to just one tube chassis in the chain, I would choose a SS phono stage, tube line stage, and SS amp, as rcprince has chosen.

Fortunately, I am not limited, and all three stages in my chain are tubed.