Tube or solid state

I like, and own, tube gear.  The amp, more than anything, determines the sound.  I think one should find the right tube amp first, and then use whatever linestage you have.  My preference, again will be tubed, but, the choice isn’t quite as critical as the amp.

So much of the sound of the amp depends on compatibility with choice of speaker, type of amp (single-ended, pushpull, output transformerless), choice of output tube type, and quality of parts (particularly the output transformers). Make good choices here and spend most of the electronics budget here, and the sound would be good with any decent linestage.

 Because most tube amp designs don’t really need gain or drive from the linestage anyway, it makes sense to buy a good integrated amp which is often not much more than a tube amp with a volume control, source selector switch and extra input jacks added to a basic smp.

All of the best systems I’ve heard featured full tube preamps into tube amplifiers, and that combo is my preference. If I could only pick one, I’d be inclined to go with an integrated tube amp.

My best sound has been tube preamp to tube amp with very efficent horn speakers (current setup). So, if your speakers are inefficient, you might someday change your speakers!

However there is budget, and love of existing speakers, and WAF, so ...

I’ve done SS preamp into tube amps (mono blocks) and been happy, just more happy with tube/tube.

I’ve done tube preamp to SS amp (those less efficient speakers needed plenty of power) and been happy, just ....

One or the other, tube preamp to SS amp. My friends bring their equipment here from time to time, recently a friends new tube phono stage, and alternate tubes the seller included. We tube rolled, found the preferred tubes for his, surprisingly the rectifier tube change made a big difference. Then compared his to mine. We both preferred mine, so it can be prefer ’this particular’ unit, or the which tubes in that preamp.

I settled on a CD player, vintage Sony xa5400. I liked it thru a friends SS preamp, we both loved it thru my tube preamp. I might not have kept it if I heard it thru my old SS preamp.

The ’right’ tube selection can definitely make a difference in preamps, amps, phono stages ... it’s hard and can be pricey to find the preferred ones (not better, preferred).

There has to be 100 threads on this already, search archives....