Hey, that's what makes this forum so much fun Fishboat! Glad to be of help. Just a few more thoughts based on your recent words:
Oh my, YES, YES, YES, improving your front end can have a HUGE impact on sound IMHO, especially given your current player. There are threads ad nauseum on audio hierarchy that you can find with a search. Most seasoned audiophiles seem to fall in two camps as far as which component has the potential to make the most impact on the system. One being the front-end, and the other being speakers. There are still others who will cite other components. My intention here is definitely NOT to dredge up opinions that have already been stated in many other threads on this subject. Just to tell you that you can be assured your CD player makes a tremendous difference in your system. Making even an inexpensive improvement there to a more modern, well-designed player would be money well-spent. Not to sound like a skipping record, but if you want to keep to a modest budget, again Jolida makes a player that is killer for under a grand brand new (JD-100A). No, I don't have stock in the company. For a great discussion on Audio System Hierarchy check out the December issue of The Absolute Sound - there is a great panel discussion on that very subject.
So from your preferences of vocals and jazz I'd say tubes would be a great way to go. Definitely check out what a difference they can make. I don't know your MA6100, but I'd suspect it is not likely it can act as a preamp to another amp. The Jolida's I mentioned, and the Cayin are all integrated amps and would not require a preamp.
Marco
Oh my, YES, YES, YES, improving your front end can have a HUGE impact on sound IMHO, especially given your current player. There are threads ad nauseum on audio hierarchy that you can find with a search. Most seasoned audiophiles seem to fall in two camps as far as which component has the potential to make the most impact on the system. One being the front-end, and the other being speakers. There are still others who will cite other components. My intention here is definitely NOT to dredge up opinions that have already been stated in many other threads on this subject. Just to tell you that you can be assured your CD player makes a tremendous difference in your system. Making even an inexpensive improvement there to a more modern, well-designed player would be money well-spent. Not to sound like a skipping record, but if you want to keep to a modest budget, again Jolida makes a player that is killer for under a grand brand new (JD-100A). No, I don't have stock in the company. For a great discussion on Audio System Hierarchy check out the December issue of The Absolute Sound - there is a great panel discussion on that very subject.
So from your preferences of vocals and jazz I'd say tubes would be a great way to go. Definitely check out what a difference they can make. I don't know your MA6100, but I'd suspect it is not likely it can act as a preamp to another amp. The Jolida's I mentioned, and the Cayin are all integrated amps and would not require a preamp.
Marco