"I have only read positive things hear about combing ss amps with tube pres"
Let me be the first one to tell you it's not all that it's hyped up to be! I have found tube pre's to be very noisey, immense amounts of detail is obscured by both the noise and rolled off topend. The bass is soggier, the presentation is much slower. The midrange does have the magic but it came off to me as synthetic/artificial, but I can see how folks could enjoy the sound, it wasn't unpleasant, just not realistic, but must confess vocals and acoustics are intoxicating. The soundstage was the most impressive I've ever heard and there was a nice warmth and ambiance, the fleshing out of objects with solid body is great, but, overall, the tradeoffs where to severe, I couldn't live with it. Just bought a Musical Fidelity Preamp, it has a touch of the warmth and liquidity of the tubes, with great body, imaging and richness, along with and all the great aspects of a superior ss preamp, such as speed, power, clarity, extension and transparency (but a touch of coloration), and much better fits my tastes. Your tastes may vary, and obviously a few folks do enjoy a tube preamp, but I imagine it to be a very system sensitive matchup to be worth the tradeoffs.
