Why does my new tube amp and preamp sound so bad?

Klipsch La Scalas: I have a feeling they need to be placed closer to wall. If this does not help try moving them around might be the room and not the speakers or gear.

The sound you describe is nothing like my experience with Cary pre-amp and amps - I've owned one pre and three amps.
I do find Klipsches to have that tinny sound, though. If I were you I'd call Cary again and strongly request to speak with Dennis Had. He was very helpful with the only problem I ever had with one of his amps.

In general, the Cary tube sound is warm, round, and full. What you describe reminds me of the Adcom gear I've heard. This is an odd situation.

schipo,how can it be the room when before replacing the adcom with the cary he had great sound,the room hasnt changed only the gear has.

if your lascalas sounded good to you with your adcom ss gear & nothing else has changed in your rig aside from the addition of the cary amp & preamp it could be that you just simply prefer ss over tubes.

i wouldnt even start getting into tube rolling as a way to correct a bad sounding rig, from my experience with tubes all tube rolling will do is drain your cash & add to your frustration,the same goes for cables,both are a tweak.

i too fell in love with the idea of tube gear & klipsch speakers(klipsch horns)& had the exact same experience as you are going thru,weak bass & the more power i put to the speakers the worse it sounded & i used the exact same word(tinny)as you to describe the new sound,I HATED IT!

try it the other way around,try using the cary pre with the adcom amp & see how you like it,i hated tube amps with my k horns but i did like tube preamps with ss amps on the k horns,i still got the flavor of tubes with the BALLS of solid state amplification.

i was running a $500 20 year old mcintosh mc7100 100 wpc ss amp with my k horns before buying a $7,000 mcintosh mc2102 100 wpc tube amp to run them with & what a let down that was,the same as your experience,i asked all the same questions as you & got all the usual answers like my cables were all wrong,the rest of my rig was unresolving,try different tubes,move speakers around,add room treatments,of which none worked.

i wouldnt waste alot of time & cash experimenting trying to correct a sound that you dont like,sell the carry rocket & put the cash into a class a ss amp,you'll be alot happier,i was.

mike.

Did you actually play music through the preamp for 100 hours, or did you just leave it on for that period without signal. Coupling caps in preamps need to be broken in with a signal. The performance of tube preamps can be undone with brand new coupling caps.