Tube Vs. SS Preamps

Make sure that any tube preamp that you are considering has an output impedance compatible with your amplifiers.

Well, let's see.  The REVERED Marantz tube pre-amp was followed by the REVERED Audio Research tube pre-amp, that in its day, was said to be the best pre-amp ever produced.

Since then, they have improved it over and over.

Evidently, they know what they are doing and my suggestion is to TRY ONE IN YOUR ROOM and see if it fits your system.  YOU many not like it, but it seems that everyone from the Audio press to many customers think there is something there.

OR, they could all be 'wrong' and lying.  One way to find out, I guess...

Cheers!

Tube rectified,regulated 6sn7 tube pre,with class A amps is a wonderful combination.  To my ears,sounds great.  Absolutely no listening fatigue.  

When I decided to get really invested, I bought a demo McIntosh C2600 tube preamp and matched it to a pair of MC611 mono blocks. Could not be more pleased with the results. FWIW

Building my system, I wanted components that just played what was there.  The solid state preamp quit.  I have horn speakers with a DAC that puts out 2.0V.  My amp is at full output with 1.25V.  I worked with Vacuum Tube Audio and have a passive tube buffer playing right now.  It changed the sound in a pleasant way.  Less sharpness on the top,pleasing vocals, piano(properly recorded) sounded better but not the full tube sound.  With minor changes this preamp can be turned into a 6AU7 based preamp.  However, I may not want to use it that way because of gain.  When streaming there is so much difference in volume of each song that sometimes, I still only need 1/4 volume.other times 1/2 volume.  I have not worked on audio equipment so I am scared to try experimenting myself!  Bottom line is I am happy with the sound right now.