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Seriously considering tube preamp…opinions?

Tube virgin, here. I am building a system and I'm trying to contain the preamp/amp cost to $3k or so. (I could go up a little.) 

I'm inclined not to dive into tubes all the way through, but get a solid state on the output end. (Open to suggestions; inclined toward PS Audio, Parasound.) I'm reading around about tube preamps and have talked with my local dealer, who sells Black Ice/Jolida and Prima Luna (PL). He used to carry Rogue but said they kept coming back for repairs. That's why he carries PL.

I'm asking these questions after having established (via reviews, comments) that Schiit gear is quite the value. Lately, I've been reading about Decware and other small tube makers. I'm very curious about buying direct, if possible, and a company that stands behind their products is crucial.

So, your opinions about tube integrated or *especially* tube preamps —

1. Who do you like? Consider I want to do pre/amp for a total of $3k if possible.

2. Do you think PL is worth all that money just for a preamp? I get the feeling they're high quality but a bit over-hyped. (No disrespect to the highly passionate Kevin Deal, but he's all over my search results.) And what would you think about $2k/$1k preamp-to-amp spending ratio?

3. Any sense of what happened to Jolida since the name change to "Black Ice"? I see there's a sordid story there but did the re-branding clear up the mess? Any experiences with the Black Ice company?

4. I know there are many Schiit fans out there; so my question would be -- did anyone consider Schiit for tube preamp and go another way? Or move beyond Schiit for any particular reason? It's hard not to just capitulate and do a Freya+ or Saga+ but why wouldn't one just go with Schiit?




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hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
4,974 posts
 
I had a good chat with Jim Salk, who said that at a recent RMAF show he played his Salk 9.5 towers (8 ohm, 87 db) with no problem from a 30 wpc tube in a 30x30 room. I'm likely going to change my order (I'm going to think about it a bit) to the Salk SS 6M speakers.

http://www.salksound.com/model.php?model=SS%206M 

They're 90db and 8 ohms. They're a lot more $$ than the WOW1's but the amplification needed for decent headroom will be much less; I won't find myself pushed into stratospheric prices for adequate amp power. I'll still get a 30 day trial to see how I like them. (Others on forums are comparing them to Joseph Audio, so I'm optimistic.) As folks here advised, I am *starting with the speakers* but this time, I'm also paying attention to sensitivity.
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almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
That seems like a good change well worth the increased cost.

+1.

Best regards,
-- Al

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hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
4,974 posts
 
@tvad and @almarg  Thanks for the feedback. It seemed like no big deal to Jim, and it makes so much sense from the what you've said. It really was when I made a decision to listen in a larger room and then broke out a spreadsheet (where I listed the costs and details of speakers and the amps needed to drive them -- and then mixed and matched the costs) that I saw that there was no serious economic downside to making a change. The Pass Labs sounds like a good deal, but I think I'll also follow another piece of advice I got which is to "live with the speakers" for a while before trying to match it to an amp. I have some Adcom stuff which will be just fine until it's time to find a deal on an amp.
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