Sony ES highend amp and preamp

Both are fairly good products capable of fine sound. The preamp is a slightly better performer than the amp. The phono stage is very good. Neither is particularly warm sounding, but instead they aim for a clean and detailed sound. I can see where they might sound cold if mismatched with other components. Comparable quality would be Bryston.

I have a TAE90ES preamp matched with a McCormack DNA-1 Deluxe pwr amp and a Sony SCD333ES SACD player modded by Richard Kern. The TAE90ES holds it own (much to my pleasant surprise), but only with a power cord upgrade. The complication here is that the stock pwr cord isn't detachable (i.e., no IEC socket). My recommendation is to get an audiophile cord and hard-wire it (or have it hard-wired) in. This preamp is certainly worthy of a good pwr cord. As for hard-wiring, that has nothing to do with the preamp... just a personal preference of mine as it avoids the sonic degradation of the IEC socket.

Previously, I had a conrad-johnson PV-12AL with Mullard tubes. The c-j was stronger in the midrange (nicely lush and detailed), but to my ears the TAE90ES is stronger in the bass, mid-bass and probably the the highs. (And it does have a certain "tube like" sound.) It weighs about 20 lb, has a nice feel, and seems to be well-made, as does its remote control.