Tube Preamp Paired with Tube Phono Stage?

Thanks for the responses. This is very helpful. I appreciate you taking time to share your experiences. I'll proceed with the all tube setup - phono stage and preamp line stage.

Here's another proponent and user of an all tubes analog system.

Hey Steve, experiment, have fun. Tubes are great where ever you put them. Personally, I've found that my favorite systems have tube preamp and amp, but SS phono. Sorry. Then again, that's using LOMC's in the 0.24 mV range. Your cartridge puts out 4 mV, so you should be fine. I've just found SS phono stages to sound best when using very low output cartridges, less issues with noise, balance, etc.
I'm currently using a full function VAC Auricle tube preamp with a 2.5 mV cartridge and it sounds great. ;)

Cheers,
John

If you can get an all-tube recording as well as playback, then its even better :)

I know this is a very rough generalization, but, I find that the idea of "balancing" perceived strengths and weaknesses or one kind of sound with its opposite (e.g., "warm" sounding component with a "thin" component) rarely works out as planned. One tends, more often to get the "worst of all worlds" rather than the best.

If you are a tube person, stick with tubes for amps, linestage and phono, and if you like solid state, stick with that throughout. While it is possilbe to mix and match, the results are unpredictable (it is NEVER obvious which combination will work).

I generally agree with Mulveling's comments. One of the big advantages (or possible source of frustration) of tube gear is the ability to "tune" the sound with different selection of tubes. There is a LOT of tube gear that actually sounds thin, bright, hard and harmonically threadbare (often times more extremely so than typical solid state gear), so don't assume that tubes will get you a warmer sound.

I don't agree that there is an advantage to using solid state with really low output cartridges. A properly selected step up transformer (and one properly located physically) used with very low output cartridges can be completely noise free. I just heard a .05 mv cartridge feeding a 1 to 30 step up transformer into a tube MM stage that was dead quiet and unbelievably good sounding. My .30 mv cartridge is quiet with a tube phonostage that has a built in step up transformer.