SS vs Tube Preamps

Gsm, FWIW, my basic philosophy of system composition is this:

1.) Use excellent SS gear up front for precision and transparency. Besides, tube preamps and tube phono preamps always produce some tube hiss. And unfortunately, electrostats or other highly revealing speaker systems, will reproduce this very well.

2.) Use an excellent tube power amp(s) to enjoy the harmonics, timbre, and decay that even the best SS amps never quite manage to provide. And unlike tube front-end stuff, good tube amps are just as quiet as SS amps (no tube hiss.).

The only problem with tube amplification is bass control. There's no economic advantage IMO for buying a humongous tube amp to drive either a hybrid electrostat (with woofers but no built-in bass amp) or any full range speaker with full low bass capability. The damping factor to the woofers will still be limited. Therefore, I think it better to spend the monetary difference (between a small and large tube amp) to biamp instead, with a mid-priced SS amp for the bass (like a Bryston) and use an excellent (but modest power) tube amp for the mids and highs, which is where tubes work the most magic. And as Dave indicated, the system will "still sound like tubes."

Anyway that's my two cents ;--)
.

Good post above by Nsgarch, to which I would only add it is usually much less expensive to retube a tubed preamp than a power amp, and the tubed preamp generally gives off much less heat. Also, the bass control issue extends to tubed preamps as well as power amps, with a few exceptions, although even the really good ones do not equal the bass control and definition of the best SS preamps. However, it is very hard to equal the dimensionality and harmonics of a tube amp or preamp when using SS.

without specififying one's sonic objectives it is difficult to answer the question.

i will try.

all components are inaccurate. therefore, pick your "coloration". do you prefer a more euphonic, less detailed presentation ? do you prefer transparency ??
answering the above questions can help anyone assist you in your quest.

Robert Harley stated two things about preamplification in the latest edition of his book (The Complete Guide to High End Audio) that caught my attention. Don't quote me on this as I am working on memory, but first, was that he perferred to keep the tubes as close to the source as possible and second, that in theory, if done correctly, tube and SS preamps should sound the same.

I don't know if that would apply in practice, but my experience with tube and solid state preamplication combined with SS amplification is that in my system they are very close with the tube pre being a tad smoother on the top with better soundstage depth and the SS having greater bass control and extension. I am sure with tube rolling, the results will vary quite profoundly. Can't wait to try.

My experience matched Nsgarch's. I would only add that a possibility at the power end of things might be a hybrid. There are a few, including AVA (which I use). Depending on the rest of your system the right hybrid may provide the best of what tubes and SS can both offer to drive a speaker.