Toobs + SS = x

Oops. Now what have I done? I like valve power amps because every solid state amp I have heard suffers from being either lifeless or some nasties in the upper mids. I have also heard some lovely tube preamps, yet prefer the Placette Pre to all of them. And so I find myself liking a ss pre and a valve power.

I am not saying the reverse is wrong - but I am saying that I reckon a certain popular wisdom is wrong. That is, get a big hunk of iron (alluminium) ss amp with low damping factor, and cure any cold/lifelessness with a warm tube preamp. Of course my experiences are limited - as is true for all of us.

I guess the experiences I have had lead me to the conclusion that an unmusical/hard/cold/grainy (choose one or more) ss amp, added to a warm mushy tube preamp does not so much add up to a neutral sound as give you the sonic equivalent of sweet and sour. Of course some people may like sweet and sour, but when it comes to audio I don't.

Furthermore there is a certain life to a great tube power amp (over a great ss power amp). If that life is absent in the power amp, preamps cannot cure it.

Hi Redkiwi, It’s been a while since we emailed last! Based upon what you say I agree 100% although I use both a SS system and an all tube system. The Placette unit you describe (according to other audiophile friends) say it’s a sweet SS preamp that sounds as good or better than a tube preamp. Therefor you add a tube amp and in my mind it’s simular to using a SS amp with a tube preamp only Vice versa. What you say about a SS amp being hard/cold/grainy can be so. I believe it’s what you hear and like that counts!

As I read it, Red's point is summarised in the phrase "...adding countervailing distortions (to "correct" sonic insufficiencies) is wrong...". i.e., "don't use one component to cover up another's shortcomings".

Pre(s)were the context of the thread -- but, as I saw it, the comment held for other system components as well.

Re, tubes+ss: 1) I have found tube-phonos' load matching happily with the signal. To my ears, the result is "musicality", lack of harshness, and fluidity rarely found in any but the best (& expensive) ss phonos...

2) I've been happy with this "intermarriage" going both ways: ss pre->tube power and vice-versa, the former performing better than the latter. However, this superiority probably had more to do with the equipment involved (DNM6->ear519) & matching, than with the combination concept per se.

But, I agree: a shame to insert a tube pre in order to tame, say, harshness in the ss power -- if the overall sonic result is not superior but, rather, "muted".

Cheers!