SS pre sounds like tubes

I believe the TEAD Vibe has only 6dB gain.  It is very quiet but still has great body and tone.
For my preamp, Steve offered me the option of zero gain or +6dB through the transformers, same as his VRE-1, and I chose zero gain.  Having zero gain has in no way affected the body or drive of this preamp, which are outstanding. I have not had an opportunity to try the LDR based preamps yet and, since I need balanced gear, they are harder to find.  I did try the Bent/Jay Sho autoformer preamp and thought it sounded good but not to the level of my preamp, which seemed to have a bit more body and richness, to me.  I have always liked the sound of good resistor volume controls for some reason and the tantalum resistors Steve used in mine are very nice sounding indeed, and even more musical than the low noise, laser trimmed, 0.5% nichrome SMD resistors used in a Goldpoint passive I have here.

Mitch2, I share same strategy:

IMO, it has nothing to do with tubes vs. SS, but rather does the preamp adequately drive the power amps, is it quiet and clean sounding, does it have body and drive, and is it musical.

In my approach lowest gain or unity buffered gain of preamp is the best surrounded by sources able to provide sufficient output level and sufficient sensitivity of poweramp. In other words fixed output components have large gain and variable output components have low or unity gain.

@mitch2 , Can you tell me please, where the one you had is for sale? I may be interested. Is this the one in LA?

It is listed for sale here on Audiogon by Mark Block, with the Pulse II.

The Bedini BC-800 s/s preamp and their solid-state power amps from that era (BA-801, -802, -803 and their Classic series) come as close to tube sound as I've ever heard. Hard to find; most ended up in Europe. If you want a real tube preamp that can drive anything down to 20k ohms input or lower, Don Sachs in Nelson, B.C. makes a beauty for under $2,000. See: http://www.dsachsconsulting.com/custom%20line%20stage.html
I run modified and upgraded Dynaco-based gear in my main system and use the Bedinis in the man cave. BTW, not on anybody's payroll here, but you don't need to spend 10 large for a superb preamp.