Hybrid Tube & SS

Good answer.
Unless you've heard it talk is cheap.

Was at a show one time, Chris Brady was doing extensive demo's of his turntables. He can change platters so we were able to hear everything exactly the same except for the platter. At one point for some reason he changed the phono stage. No idea what they were but the first one was all tube. He happened to be standing next to me and so after listening a minute I turned and said, "Is this all tubes?" Mostly, but there's an op-amp. "Doesn't take much then does it?" No, it does not. 

Like that. When you can hear, you can hear. Until then, very hard to explain.

I could not agree more on the listening before going ahead. Only then you can support any arguement. With my current speakers (91db) i use hybrid pre and ss stereo amp, works much better sonically than my previous tubed power amp that had plenty of power also.
G

Well, there are many speakers that work best when driven by SS amplification, wether from a hybrid integrated or a tube preamp paired with a SS amp.  There are speakers that can swing either way, thus it becomes very subjective as to what one prefers.
Then there are some high impedance speakers that beg for tube amplification.

My Esoteic MG10 are the SS type, my Tannoy Sterlings can swing, currently drive both with a tube pre into a SS amp.

Personally IMO good solid state amps have no need for a tube preamp. The key word is good SS. If you want a more profound change using tubes, I think a tube amp has more impact than a tube preamp.  IMHO