Tube Pre-amp beneficial?

I had the same problems with a pair of Quest Zs. I run them with a Krell KAV250 amp & swapped An Adcom 565 for a Sonic Frontiers Line 1 & really noticed a positive improvement. I still would get a little too much top end brightness on some recordings so I replaced a Tara Labs Prime 1000 with a Cardas Quadlink 5c speaker cable & got a really nice sound.I have seen Line 1s advertised for around $1200 on this site. . The extra bucks are worth it because it is an excellent unit with a remote& easy connection to surround sound should you desire.

Thanks for the advice. Conrad Johnson seems to be the popular choice in my price range. Has anyone heard/ can you reccommend BAT pre-amps? A friend suggested the brand but it goes a little above my limit.

Hello Wsmatau: I use a BAT VK50SE. I took home numerous preamps including Rowland, Levinson, CJ, ARC REF1 and REF2. In the end the 50SE was THE one. Nothing else came close in it's price range. Yeah, expensive, and for me worth every penny. Do yourself a favor and try the VK5i, VK30 and 50SE before you buy anything else. System: BAT VK50SE preamp, BAT VKD5 tube CD player, Sony SCD777ES SACD player, Levinson 33H, Aerial 10t. Magic!

BEEMER, glad to hear from one who uses BAT gear. would like to know what kind of power cord, intercon and isolation platform you use jphilpott@beol.net look forward to hearing from you'

As evidenced from the abpve replies, what works in one system may not yeild the same results in another. In general I would agree that a tube pre would introduce the tube coloration known as "warmth." Quite a benefit in a hard and bright sounding system. At the lower price spectrum I would suggest the Anthem pre-amp. It was mentioned above that it may not be tube like enough for you. I would like to mention that some simple tube rolling can make all the difference. Hard to beat at the prices I have seen it listed for lately. Good Luck