well, the amp pushes 20 watts to an 89db speaker and sounds terrific. again, a modified jolida 102b. sorry for cliche but now i hear music, before i heard impressive sounds. dont know if its as revelatory as it feels right now, but wondering what the hell i was thinking with solid state amplification. the tube pre didnt really add this type of dimensionality and rightness to my system before. admittedly it didnt add much of anything but didnt detract anything so i was somewhat happy. but this jolida is mystifying. the artificiality is gone even from already good recordings. thanks for the above input, but im getting the conviction that i am firmly in the camp of tube amplification, happy listening
dave