Preamp for my CODA 5.5 amp

@decooney I did a lot of online research between the Wotan and the Tyr. My main motivation was reading Jason Stoddard's (the amp designer) comments on the 2. The winning argument for me was was his comment that the that the Wotan was more explosive or powerful sounding than the more laid back Tyr.

I initially wanted to buy the Tyr because I could then sell my long Audience FrontRow speaker cables and use my short FrontRow speaker wire on the Tyr. I was also worried the Wotan would be too warm (it is not).

After about a month of owning the Wotan and playing it a lot in my office with the Magnepan Mini I found that the Wotan is as good as the CODA #16 on the Mini. I love this amp on the Mini. The Mini is better to my ears than the LRS+ I owned in a bigger room. None of the amps I had on the bigger office with the Thiel CS3.7 | Magnepan Mini | KEF LS50 Meta sound as good as the Wotan on the Mini. I do not think the Mini is particularly exceptional, but the combo sounds great.

On my Yamaha NS5000 the Wotan had some issue on the top end compared to the CODA #16. In fact, it was easy to tell the difference with the #16 being exceptional and the Wotan having a bit of an edge on top. Saying all of that. This upcoming week when I have the house to myself I will put the Wotan back with the NS5000 because I think the Wotan may have improved in the last little while of burn-in. I do not expect it to be as good as the #16 on the NS5000. 

I will say that the Wotan is a exciting sounding amp. I hate to say for the price, but I have t0o since it cost $2k and sounds as good or better than almost all the more expensive amps I have owned.

No need to take my word for it since they have a 15-day home trial and I am sure reviews to come from owners.

Thanks @yyzsantabarbara for the explanation. I'd probably gravitate more towards the Tyr then for a more "laid back" type of solid state sound you mention - good to know. Maybe something to test and compare down the road.  I'll first decide what I might want to part with first to help fund the next few amp rotations.

I've been looking at a few different monoblock amps lately but not sure I want to part with my Soderberg upgraded Pass / Forte' Class A amp just yet.  It's configured now as  Pure Class A 50w at 8ohm and 80w Class A at 4ohm. A nice size/weight amp too.  I'd probably regret parting with it, so I'm just looking around for grins right now. Thanks,  Happy Listening. 

To @dpm2340 sorry for the slight derail on the thread there. Part of this does relate though for those comparing Pass, Coda, (smaller Class A 50w amps too) and we see the questions periodically pop up about "which preamp" to run with Pass, and same topic not too far off topic with Coda. 

As to your original question, I’m a huge tube preamplifier fan myself. I run mine rotating my SS amp in/out with my tube monoblocks. Also have the matching Class A solid state preamp for my SS amp. I do compare. The tube 6SN7 preamp paired with my Pass / Forte’ amp sounds extra nice. I once thought about trying it with a Coda 5.5 or Coda S20 just to see how it would sound. Might demo one some day fwiw.