My apologies it has taken so long to respond but I was traveling and just got back. Thank you all for the very helpful suggestions- this has given me a lot to think about and in directions I had not quite considered.
Like frozentundra I had pursued the idea of using tubes with solid state amplification. I have always loved tubes and prior to current set-up I was using a Mastersound Compact 845 single ended triode integrated with Zu Druids IV and then with Focal Micro Utopia's BE: and in both cases the sound was superb albeit different (I still own all of them which is ridiculous, I know). But neither set-up is comparable to what I have currently. All this is just to say that, like tricon_dave, tubes were always part of the various set-ups (I guess with the brief exception when the Mac 7000 was being used standalone).
Based on what I have read so far in order to get those spatial cues and thus greater dimensionality and depth, I should start considering a solid state preamp. And I never really considered Pass so I am looking into this as well as some the other suggestions.
My only concern is that the Thiels can be a tad hot in the upper frequencies and I always thought tubes might be a better match- but maybe not. In terms of the current Prima Luna preamp I had thought that a tube preamp with better capacitors and a "cleaner" volume control might do the trick. An interesting compromise might be a BHK preamp- what do you think?
That said, I am very intrigued by the idea of trying all pass set-up- maybe an XP12 or an older XP20.
Anyway, the posts have been great and I am interested in hearing more as I continue to do research.
Like frozentundra I had pursued the idea of using tubes with solid state amplification. I have always loved tubes and prior to current set-up I was using a Mastersound Compact 845 single ended triode integrated with Zu Druids IV and then with Focal Micro Utopia's BE: and in both cases the sound was superb albeit different (I still own all of them which is ridiculous, I know). But neither set-up is comparable to what I have currently. All this is just to say that, like tricon_dave, tubes were always part of the various set-ups (I guess with the brief exception when the Mac 7000 was being used standalone).
Based on what I have read so far in order to get those spatial cues and thus greater dimensionality and depth, I should start considering a solid state preamp. And I never really considered Pass so I am looking into this as well as some the other suggestions.
My only concern is that the Thiels can be a tad hot in the upper frequencies and I always thought tubes might be a better match- but maybe not. In terms of the current Prima Luna preamp I had thought that a tube preamp with better capacitors and a "cleaner" volume control might do the trick. An interesting compromise might be a BHK preamp- what do you think?
That said, I am very intrigued by the idea of trying all pass set-up- maybe an XP12 or an older XP20.
Anyway, the posts have been great and I am interested in hearing more as I continue to do research.