Tubes Through Solid State

I am not a big fan of mixing the two. I feel you gain some but lose more. I think you are on to something about losing depth especially. I could always tell there was ss in the system even though it controlled the speakers nicely I missed all tubes.

I do not think it is worth it.

I feel I am in the minority probably but this is my 2 cents...

My experience is that better sound is obtained via tubes into tubes. Ive tried my pre tube into various SS amps and it never improves the sound.

I've found that my ARC Ref3 sounds great into my Krell MDA/KSA amps. This series of Krells has a tube like midrange and treble plus the awesome bass of the Krells. The Ref 3 compliments and enhances the quailities of the Krells adding depth and imaging. With the Krells, one doesnt't have to worry about tube failure, but the heat issue is a wash.
In the final analysis, each to his own.

My experience was that a tube pre can work very well with SS power...

My experience has been tubed pre into ss amp. Ran this combo for years and liked it very much; kinda the best of both worlds. Equipment wise various cj tubed pre's and cj ss amps. Last combo was a cj premier 16lsII into a cj premier 350. Having said that I now use a Cary SLI-80F1 direct coupled integrated and I am very happy and have not looked back.

CHuck