I noticed your post...
"And as for a tube amp and the Job not liking each other, it's not that they don't like each other it's the fact that there is too much gain, massive in fact, as Devilboy said way back about the Job "IMO, the 225's specs SCREAM passive" You be nutz to put a preamp with it that has gain.
Remember what Nelson Pass said, (and he designs and sells active
preamps.)"
Are you able to confirm exactly which tubed preamp that you were using, that ultimately did not provide a usable gain-match with the JOB 225 please?
Importantly, I'd like to understand how much gain that particular tubed preamp had, as I am seriously considering a JOB 225 to use with my own tubed preamp with 12dB of gain. Appreciated.
(I use 4-8 ohm dynamic speakers of around 90dB sensitivity...)
To my ears, I have found that all systems benefit from having tubes in the circuit, somewhere in the chain. Of course, this assumes all other factors - such as impedance and gain matching are well and good.
I look forward to your thoughts...