Tube in Preamp or Power amp?

I owned amp with tubes and I sold them as well. And I like them too. But Pass Labs made me think differently about amps. Most SS I did not find good enough. I wanted the sound of tubes but not there limitations. They need time to get the optimum sound. Yess it cost money to change them after a few years. And I wanted the speed, drive and control of SS. The class A sound of Pass Labs is very involving. The speed and control gives you things you can difficult get with tubes. When I put the amp on it plays directly at a stunning level. I like things to be fast, I don't like waiting. Normally when I would not have the Onkyo with Audyssey Pro I would have choosen for a tube pre amp. But how I use the Onkyo I never will get the musical sound without any acoustic problem. It gives me also all the layer in the low freq. Without it it is a lot more difficult to get. On the other hand I have more resolution in the highest freq. With other pre amps I do not have the option to create more resolution without changing cables or modifications. I even can adapt the stage wide and depth. There is no preamp which can give me this freedom at this moment. With Audyssey Pro I get the sound realism which highend pre amps can create.

"The whole world is a Tuxedo and I'm a pair of tube socks" - ME
(some material borrowed from George Gobel)

Gotta say, in this day and age, probably a lot more up side for reasonable cost spending time playing/tuning with a tool like Audyssey than playing with tubes. If only Audyssey had that cool retro looking tube glow! YEah I know, apples and oranges, but times and technology changes. Usually best to ride the latest and greatest wave for most up-side. At least that is how I tend to think. Digital processing, done well and made easy, has huge potential upside in playback much as is already the case with most recordings these days. But only if done well.

The time spent of messing around with tubes is miniscule relative to that spent listening to music, but if you enjoy the sound of tube amps it's an enjoyable and engaging part of the hifi experience. Also, I like the natural sound of recording dynamics in my listening room without somebody else's idea of what it "should" sound like, so I don't get suggestions of "a huge potential upside" of signal processing of low frequencies. It's an artifice for the aurally challanged and is simply somebody trying to sell me something I, and most others, don't need. There will be no digital nanny moving into my house.

I think the below which I found in an amazon review on a tube integrated sold there says it all:

"After going through quite a few solid state and a few tube amps, I can't help but think of the wife mistress analogy.
Solid state amp is like a wife who is faithful, reliable, low maintenance, complex, intelligent, multi tasking but cold in bed.
Tube amp on the other hand is like a mistress who is not very reliable, high maintenance, too much fuss, simple but hot in bed."

SAy no more....

...I'll take the "hybrid". :^)