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question about ss or tubes

So right now the sound I'm getting is wonderfully enveloping and fills my little space up with the music.  The music has reasonable amount of depth it images beyond the edges of the speakers and sometimes sound comes from behind me or right next to me. However I know I'm missing some detail and it has me contemplating a phono stage and I'm just wondering would I lose what I have going to solid state in order to get detail or is it possible to keep this spacious floating sort of presentation with something like a Sutherland 20/20 for example. On a side note I'm getting some new power tubes for my amps so I think this should help with my detail but my question is still does solid state do this sort of presentation or is not a ss or tube question at all but a system room synergy thing that causes this.

128x128fourwnds
don_c55
1,025 posts
 
The Sutherland 20/20 is bland IMO, however there are many SS phono stages that will give you your depth and imaging.

Tubes do not have a monopoly on depth and sound staging.
fourwnds's avatar
fourwnds OP
277 posts
 
Thanks that's good to know. I briefly tried one (2 weeks) that was very good but there was something about it that I did not like but my system was much different then. Also I don't know if two weeks was enough time to properly let it settle in. I may try it again. What suggestions do you have?  Thanks 

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,807 posts
 
Both tube and solid state take some time to break in; in addition both take time to warm up. Tubes take about two hours to really sound right and solid state takes 24 hours to a week (meaning that if its a solid state preamp it should be left on all the time for best results. Consult your manufacturer about the safety of doing so).

If you feel like you are missing some detail I would consider sticking with tubes. Triode signal tubes arguably have the greatest linearity known to man; If there is any place to put a tube its as close to the front end of your system as you can. Once you loose information no matter how good the amps and speakers are you can't regain it downstream.


fourwnds's avatar
fourwnds OP
277 posts
 
Atmasphere, the solid state phono pre never got shut off for the two weeks I had it. I had an ss amp once that took forever to break in, probably in the hundreds of hours. I've often wondered if the same can be expected from ss preamps. Thanks for the suggestion on sticking with triode signal tubes. I don't think throwing out the baby with the proverbial bath water would be right. Not to discount ss but a 180 about face is probably too extreme of an unknown. I see your point about closer to source upstream stuff. But, Isnt it just as likely downstream areas can mask things as well. It's gonna be interesting to hear what changing from the Shuguang's to the EML does. Thanks for your input. 
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