@william53b This is all very interesting to me, as well. I have two systems. One has a pair REL T/9i and a pair Magnepan 1.7i which has evolved to be my solid state system. I also have a system with a pair of Magico A3s. I move the RELs around when I play them. This is evolving to be my tube system. The Maggie system is driven by Bryston equipment: 17B3 preamp, BDA-3 DAC and a pair of 28B3 monoblocks. The 28B3s are beasts with a lot of headroom for dynamics and sound great. But it seems that folks are having success driving Maggies with high power tubes. I haven’t gone back to inspect all the prior postings. But I suspect that 300B and EL34s won’t cut it. KT88 tubes might. But the safer bet is KT120 or 150s. I would be very interested in learning what your experience with tubes on Maggies might be or the tube preamp. As for a tube preamp, if you are unsure you can get a B-stock Schiit Freya+ and see how that goes. If it’s not good then sell it. It will move. If it does work then you can either stay with it and save some $ or sell and get a Backert, Rogue or AR preamp. However, I too am wondering how much tube flavor is transmitted by a tube preamp across solid state power amps. I am thinking that the best chance of the tube preamp affecting the power amps like that would be with the Benchmark AHB2s since they are very transparent amps. Let us know what happens.
