tube magic with digital source?

Agree with tomcy6, however, I believe that simply introducing a tube amp will improve the sound regardless.. Granted, it has to match the speakers well. And of course everything else matters if you're looking for perfection. 

I've been back and forth on the SS vs. Tube debate.....  had several good SS / Tube combos and keep going back to tube pre and amplifier.   

Getting great results with a tube pre and 40 watts of EL34 goodness into higher efficiency speakers with several digital sources.    I like my source to be true to the recording , it's the speaker / amp synergy that gives me the sound I'm ultimately looking for.

Thanks to everyone who provided insights here. I agree the best thing to do is try it. 

Yes.

I'm very convinced that part of the rise of SETs in the 1990s has to do with the dryness (back then) of digital. The two complement each other in a certain way. I wouldn't regard it as neutral by any means, but often an SET can calm down the presentation of a digital playback that otherwise has problems.

However in recent times digital has gotten to the point that inexpensive digital is available with excellent sound that would have been considered state of the art only 10-15 years ago. Topping makes a number of inexpensive DACs that work quite nicely with tubes. Because I couldn't find a lower powered tube amp that wasn't also compromised in some way, I wound up designing and building one myself. This amp makes 5 watts, but has wider bandwidth and lower distortion than SETs. Its also low noise. I built this amp for my bedroom system, which uses small, easy-to-drive loudspeakers. Its used exclusively with digital audio and the results are quite pleasing- it is very smooth and detailed.  I'm using a Topping E30 DAC, which cost about $125.00 on ebay including shipping. You might laugh but this DAC is cheap enough you might want to pick one up and see how it compares with more expensive DACs (I've done this). Its quite compact and recognizes a wide range of codices. 


The tube amp replaced a solid state amp of exactly the same size and power. The improvement in sound was easy to discern; the tube amp has more depth, better bass (measurably so as well) and simply sounds more realistic.

I mostly agree with miller on this. I have never been able to get emotionally connected with any digital source I have tried. From the outset, it simply isnt there. However I do enjoy digital more with my tubes than with S.S. but the improvement isnt as significant.