What qualities stand out in really good solid state preamps?

@ghdprentice

Good point about calibrating to live music. I suppose that would establish a correlation that could transcend categories. Well put.

Of course, a lot of amplified/studio music should NOT be gotten "correct" because they are compressing and shaping the sound so it pleases and grabs attention when played of mass market headphones, cars, etc. One does NOT want to hear the original. Like a bad casserole, if it’s not corrected somehow, it’s barely edible.
Here’s a pretty tendentious but convincing view on this: https://youtu.be/j_sa915TD-o?si=tOXaeeZvglEhpdAi

The point is that "being in the studio" is kind of meaningless, because they are making stuff to be played by others. The chef cooks food that most customers will like, not what she thinks is "true" or "best."

@sameyers1
Knowing how the XP-12 performs, especially with my XA-25 would be revealing.
I have heard neutrality with a very good passive autoformer. I didn’t like it. Lifelessness -- in that system. Now that I have a DAC with more voltage output, I might try that again. A friend with the Bent/Tap X is done with preamps. he loves it. After 30 years, that’s all he wants in a preamp.

As for "warmer", I can imagine people stuck in a room they cannot measure or tweak with treatments liking a "warmer" sound because it actually helps with some of the tonality deficits produced by their room. Without controls on these comments, there’s no way to really know whether we’re talking about the same perceptual effect. And that’s *prior* to problems we would have with interpretation of these words!

Neutrality is also problematized by our varying physiology.

To comment a bit more -- not about anyone’s comment in particular -- I ask myself, What’s the pragmatic upshot of neutrality? It cannot mean some objective "getting back to the original recording," not least because we'd never be able to confirm we had done so, and most importantly because the original recording is just prime matter which is yet to take on the forms imposed by its varying instantiations (in people's varying gear, ears, rooms, tastes, etc.

Still, we can practically know when something has been added. If I eat a burger covered with black pepper, I would know that’s not neutral. This was ghdprentice's point, I think. One has various baselines and they can notice when there's "something added" vs. "baseline." Objectivity is a pragmatic concept, not a metaphysical one.

@gfguillot
"the more you spend the more you’ll hear in the sound."
Having connected with audiophiles with an eye for small makers and DIY, I’d say the more you KNOW the more you’ll hear in the sound. (And sometimes you know you need to spend more!)

As for "warmer", I can imagine people stuck in a room they cannot measure or tweak with treatments liking a "warmer" sound because it actually helps with some of the tonality deficits produced by their room. Without controls on these comments, there’s no way to really know whether we’re talking about the same perceptual effect. And that’s *prior* to problems we would have with interpretation of these words!
 

Appears as if you have already interpreted and perceived what is meant by these words. 

What do you look for in a preamp @hilde45 

@hilde45 please remind me which active preamp you are currently using and whether or not your new DAC has a volume control.  If it does, have you tried running it straight into your amp (make sure you significantly lower the volume!) and noted what you gained or lost compared to having the preamp in the system?  I apologize if you already did this.

@audphile1  "Appears as if you have already interpreted and perceived what is meant by these words."

The word "warmer" seems more definite than the word "neutral," and that's what I was getting at. Much of the debate here seems to be about "neutral." 

   @jc4659  My current active preamp is a loaner, one built around a burson audio buffer. I am not sure my Holoa Audio spring can be run straight into my amp, but that's an interesting suggestion!

Again, my main thrus in this thread is to gather vocabulary for SS preamp differences.

@hilde45 Thanks, I think I saw on another forum that you owned a deHavilland pre.

This whole neutrality thing seems to have discussions going around in circles. My use of the term was more restricted to having the opportunity to listen to music with and without a preamp in the path, all other parts being the same. A DAC with a volume control is one way to do this. It can show you how the preamp may be contributing to the overall sound or if it is not changing it at all.  Absolute neutrality seems impossible to ascertain since you would need to have the live recording event as a reference. After that, the sound we hear from our systems is guaranteed to be different. It gets "seasoned" by engineers, mixing/recording equipment, and playback gear including acoustic space.

When I remove my solid state preamp I like what I hear; just trying to decide what kind of seasoning, if any, I might want to add. It's a subjective thing for sure but for me it's both visceral and emotional. I know it when I hear it.  The objective attributes I look for have been mentioned by others above.  My reference will always be real people playing real instruments in a real space.