Best of luck, in your preamp search!
I would love a nice tube pre for my amp, but, time, and reliability, plus cost is a huge crutch for me.
I’ll stic w my aging SS preamps.
enjoy the ride! |
200 suggestions! Feels like it. Some people have been repeatedly helpful to me -- had a lot of experience with different gear and have been willing to consider what I need. I really appreciate that. I actually created a master document with suggestions which were well-reasoned or which many people mentioned. I created a multi-page table populated with brands and important criteria. Here are a few general lessons I've taken away, as they made sense to me: - Tube gear costs more than I initially expected but there are good used deals out there, real values. It is not unaffordable.
- Some tube gear holds its value forever (Sachs, deHavilland, Herron) other gear becomes quite easy to find discounted.
- Tube watts are different, but low sensitivity speakers are going require a lot of $$ for comfortable amounts of tube-power
- Tubes are everywhere. In preamps/amps, in DAC's, in CD players. (In MIGs!)
- It is hard to know how many components with tubes to get — at just the preamp level or at multiple levels. (E.g. should I get a tube DAC if I have a tube preamp? Probably need to experiment and not assume one way or another.)
- Impedance-matching between different preamp and amp brands isn't technically hard, but synergy is a trickier guess if one cannot audition. Many will tell you what worked for them, but the speakers, etc. are additional variables which complicate the match. (Not to mention room, cables, etc.)
- Tubes can sound like SS and vice versa, within limits. Nice sounding SS (to approach the softness of tubes) can be very expensive.
- In the preamp/amp combination, Tube/SS is much more advisable than SS/Tube.
- Some say "all you need is a tube preamp" others say, "go tubes all the way"
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@hilde45,
All good points,
I would steer clear of linear sounding tubes in preamp or amps if you want to enjoy and experience rich harmonic ‘distortions’ associated with good tube gear....otherwise stick with SS gear.
The pre/amp combination, Tube/SS will greatly depends on efficiency of your full range speakers. The higher efficiency, say 96dB will give you greater flexibility in SS or Tube amplification. Less than 96dB, say 92dB efficiency SS amp is the way to go. Some full range speakers even dip down to 2-3 ohms load, for those you need a good wattage power amp to handle the peaks.
I went from 92db to 96db speakers and couldn’t be any happier. I can drive my speakers with 8W SET, 30W class A or 200W class A/B amps.
Hope this helps! |
@lalitk I thought I had made an all-tube setup possible by going for 90db speakers. I see how 96db would give *greater flexibility* for amps, but you’re also saying that if less than 96db then SS is the way to go? |
@hilde45,
I did not say, it will be impossible to drive 90db speakers with tube amplification. Have you tried comparing SS vs Tube amplification with you 90db speakers?
Do you honestly think you can drive 90db speakers comfortably with a 8W SET amps. 😊
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