amp or preamp to extend upper end

The MP-3 and MP-1 have direct-coupled outputs which allows them a lot of transparency and bandwidth. Detail is not a thing they are lacking. I find solid state to be bright but lacking detail by comparison.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback.

I found a really good deal on 3 month old Cary SLP-05 tube preamp. Very excited to hear it. I think this will be a great introduction to tubes.

Evolving did you try Almarg's suggestion?

What Ralph just posted seems to me related to Atkinson's Vandersteen 3 measurements. SS amps can sound bright while lacking detail because fine detail is smaller than the resolution floor of the amp, the detail lost in the amp's graininess (just as detail can be lost in the grain of analog film, the size of the grain larger than the detail itself). The Vandersteen 3, while measuring flat, sounds a little soft (just slightly out-of-focus, to continue the photography analogy), lacking detail that it's flat FR is supposed to assure. The softness then is not the result of a rolled-off top, but of what? The original Quad speaker has a more rolled-off top end than does the Vandersteen 3, yet provides far more detail. Transparency is the result of time-related matters, not just frequency---though the two are inseparable, of course. Vandersteen designs are touted as being time coherent---why then are they not very transparent?

Rleff I did try almargs suggestion and it actually helped. Although I only had to go up by about 1/2 db.

Bdp24 I think my next project (after figuring a good phono preamp) is to considering changing out the Vandersteen 3a, thinking about a pair of used Quattros...