Which SS preamps will compete w/ tubes?

Tubes are the way for me. they simply sound more musical! I love my CJ Premier 14 ! BTW Tubes in most preamps can last 5 years or more, depending on the design. Did you know that Many Marantz 10b Tuners still have original tubes that are almost 40 years old! There are lots of great SS preamps too. It's up to you enjoy!

I agree with Driver about the Pass Aleph P. I used to be a die hard tube fanatic. Why? Because they sounded so much smoother and were more revealing with my ribbon speakers than with any solid state component I had heard. Then a friend, who builds amps commercially, twisted my arm very hard, trying to get me to audition the solid state Pass X amp and a Pass pre amp. I tried his suggestion halfway. Following the common wisdom found in the posts above I chose to use a tube pre with the Pass X amp. It was pretty darn good, but not as transparent as I knew ribbons speakers can be. Swallowing hard, I bought a Pass Aleph P and completed the set like my friend had wanted. Now I can only describe my system as "reference," meaning the whole system gets out of the way of the music. I still think that the best cd player is a tubed cd player; Pass doesn't make a cd player.

Tennis pro. All good things take a little time. What if someone put two weeks into tennis and walked away because it was to complicated or difficult?

My God! Backhand, forehand, dropshots, volleys...haven't got it in two weeks...I quit! It is par for the course that you would be confused about tubes after two weeks. I've been at it for a few years and I'm still confused.

Actually, one of nice things about tubes is the variety. And for $2500 you can get a wonderful tube pre. Some foks choose not to go tubes and that is certainly valid too.

I remain,

What speakers are you using??? Some speakers are born for tubes , some for SS, some sound fine with either.

At $2,500 you will not find SS that will compete with tubes....