Tube Preamp vs Solid State

Very nice! Thieliste & Phd-

Those espirit cables/cords are supposed to be very nice.
Additionally, I want to audition both VAC + VTL gear w/ Thiel loudspeakers. They are supposed to be sonic matches for one another. Excellent flow of information here, keep it coming. Happy Holidays.

My SS preamp is very clean sounding and puts an accurate signal into my tube power amp grease festival...I would like to get a tube preamp someday but anything I like is so expensive that I don't give a crap, and my feeling is that my tube amp is where the rubber meets the road...the system sounds great, and I prefer not to have another tube rolling gizmo draining my cash...still...that Cary is tempting...damn...

Out of interest - I am really taken aback by the fact if it is the case that your dealer won't lend you some pre-amps. In the UK it is taken for granted that you get to try out what you want before committing to the purchase. My penniesworth is that when I have heard a couple of all Karan Set ups they are pretty damn good - authority, even handed, not harsh at all. Like Wolf-Garcia i may go down the tube route one day, but I think what I may want will be stratospheric in price, and that which I have heard (mostly) is often soft at the top and bottom (Art Audio and VTL excluded which i thought were astonishing) - just to throw something into the mix - try and audition the following: Music First, DNM 3d; Lavardin pre-amp. Test as much as you can. There is also a lot of wisdom in the posts relating to your front end which may have a cd with a very good pre-out already

Someone also told me about NAT AUDIO making some very fine tube gear.
Their tube preamps are supposed to be very good, also a Serbian company like Karan Acoustics.
Any of u had the chance to audition NAT audio gear ?

If going passive, a used Placette Remote Volume control is a great idea. The Placette line stage can be had used for $800 or so and ads three inputs. These are made with the Nude Vishay bulk foil resistors and are quite accurate.