SS pre sounds like tubes

inburrito, your statement,

Tom Evans Vibe, was the best preamp I have had

makes me wonder, why look at anything else? There is the latest model Vibe-Lithos 7 and Pulse II for sale right now and I know they are excellent, because I used to own them (but have no affiliation with the current seller).

I really liked that preamp because of its clarity, even-handed treatment of all frequencies and touch of fullness which, in combo, made it very musical and enjoyable to listen to.  It is absolutely quiet which would be a nice feature with today's high resolution digital sources.  For a number of years I kept going back to them and I actually owned four of them at different times.  I have owned over 20 relatively high quality preamps in the $4-10K range (including many with tubes) and would put the TE Vibe with Pulse in the top three.  IMO, it really does nothing wrong.  I would call the soundstage "tidy" instead of expansive, but I was fine with that.  Another issue some might have, in comparison to the best preamps in the range, it was not the most dynamic pre I have owned, but it was always very musical and well-balanced.  It was amazing to me that TE was able to accomplish such a nice sounding preamp using op amps which, in general, I have found to flatten the sound and reduce micro-dynamics vs. using discrete circuits.  I do not notice this with the Vibe.  I would never say it sounds like a tubed preamp, but I would say I liked it better than several highly rated tubed preamps.

As far as a purchase, it seems things have improved somewhat in that there is a larger USA dealer network than I ever remember.   SORAsound and Sound by Singer are listed as Dealers, but no USA "distributor" is listed.  If you go to the TEAD USA website, more dealers are listed.  If you go to the TEAD UK website, the company appears to be more active than in the recent past, with new products in design or production and even an upgrade offered to the Vibe.   

Let us know what you end up with.

Actually the trend is for the companies to meet somewhere in the middle....s/s electronics are sounding less s/s...tube electronics are sounding less like tubes.  I guess everyone is agreeing that these are adding artifacts into the soundstream that shouldn't be there.  Have a listen to Ayre, or top of the line Audio Research.

"SS pre sounds like tubes"
There is no such thing as far as I know and when someone says his/her amp sounds "tube like", I usually assume he/she has never owned a tube amp. I would love to hear specific examples like abc ss amp or preamp sounded just like xyz tube amp or preamp with the same set of sources and speakers.

I think a great way to get that "tube" sound is to use tubes. Reviewers of amps and preamps use the "tube-like" description so often it's become a cliche', but I get it, and I use tubes. I am into hifi accuracy (!) although with recorded music you're at the mercy of the engineer's choice of mikes, mood swings, pan pot manipulation, and artist mollycoddling. When I bought my tube power amp a dude at the manufacturer's headquarters said they were going for a "modern" sound, meaning somehow less grease in the amp's output, which combined with a very clean preamp (note preamps for hifi should put out such a stress free low output signal to an amp that distortion of any kind from the preamp should be nearly undetectable) should be both less bad tubey, and more good tubey…so the question remains: Tubey or not tubey?