Preamp for Clayton Audio S40?

Bombaywalla, For the record,I think you got it backwards - a high imput impedence in an amp is an important criteria for most tube pre amps. 47K or higher should work fine with just about any tube pre amp.

In my current set up, I drive the S40 (up for sale soon) with a Sony T-AP9000es multichannel preamp. I am waiting for my M100 to return back from the factory then the s40 will be available.

One more thing. This amp surprised me when I took it out of the box to use for the first time. I can't believe how nice it is up and down the musical scale.

Newbee,

Yes, I'm quite sure that I know about input impedances & their loading effects on the prior stage.

What I was trying to say in my post was that despite Clayton amps having a reasonably high inp. impedance, it might not be high enough as tube preamps themselves have a high output impedance.
Of course, it might be the case that a tube pre will work just fine with the Clayton but I just wanted to make David aware of the *potential* interplay between the tube pre output imp. & Clayton inp. impedance.

BTW, did you read that 2nd article I pointed David to? The reviewer there also mentions this very same point! Do spend some time to read it.

Bombaywalla - I read the article. Personally, I thought the reviewer was over the top in recommending a SS pre amp just because of a potential, and slight, electrical mismatch might occur if the user wasn't mindful in selecting the pre-amp. IMHO the user should keep an open mind should he have an inclination to a tube pre-amp and not just blindly exclude one because of this reviewers comments.

Newbee,

>>IMHO the user should keep an open mind should he have an >>inclination to a tube pre-amp and not just blindly >>exclude one because of this reviewers comments.

Fully agree with your opinion! I'm of the same mind. However, when providing advice I've found it best to be conservative & maybe over-mindfull than the other way around. Hence my comments to David.
My overall opinion on pro reviewers is mixed for obvious reasons. However, many times I find that they do express a valid point & re. the Clayton they *just might* have a valid point. I don't have personal experience. I hope that some other Clayton users, who have compared the perf. using both SS & tube pre to see which is better, chime in here .