What Solid State PreAmp?

One last OT response (this thread is about SS pre-amps).

I'm saying that most of us audiophiles don't know as much about the "best" sounding tubes as the designers of the equipment. It's their lifes' work.

When I look for answers to a question about mortgage banking I'll usually look inward, toward my own decades of experience in the industry. If I don't know it, I know who knows it. OTOH, when I'm trying to reach sonic nurvana, I look to someone like Jeff Rowland, because he's dedicated himself to pursuing sonic purity for decades and he's a leader in his field.

With most SS designs the only thing users are likely to change are the power cord and interconnects. I think that's a positive. OTOH, there's a tube culture that advocates tube rolling almost any piece of equipment that they purchase. I don't see tube rolling as an advantage of tubes over SS.

BTW, I do hear differences between gear and have used my ears to lead me to some of the best gear AND designers. Still, there's no shame in putting trust in an expert, such as Jeff Rowland for instance. My ears led me to the man and the man reinforced the trust and the relationship. There's nothing wrong with that.

Have fun playing with your tubes...;-)

Dave

I agee with Larry on this one. My latest preamp is Dodd and tubes that it cam with were JJs new stock that sound like crap. In contrast, Mullards or Amperex pumped new life into Dodd that out of the box was lacking soul and character. Since it is very sensetive to tube rolling it is a tweakers delight and an easy fix to fine tune the sound to taste or preferances that one might seek.
Gary's choice of tubes was driven by exactlly the same reasones that Larry point out in his post.

06-10-08: Mrjstark said:
"I agee with Larry on this one. My latest preamp is Dodd and tubes that it cam with were JJs new stock that sound like crap. ..."

Exactly my point. I prefer to buy something that would make the designer proud, not something he'd have to apologize for.

Dave

Hi there MIKEAUDIO. Don't know what part of the country you're living in, but you really should try to get access to the H-Cat PR7 preamp (retail list $4995). I have used and owned many of the top-ranked preamps over the years (tube and solid state), but I have never heard a preamp that can bring the music to life like the H-Cat. The sound is frightingly live sounding. I have been an audiophile/music lover over 50 years and I can honestly say that the H-Cat is the "best of the best". Try it and don't make up your mind after 20 minutes as one audiogoner did. After it is fully broken in, you will have a hard time going back to any other preamp. It has no colorations of the sound. If you want to hear the truth, you won't be dissapointed.

Dave, it is not the design itself. It it is a lot less expencive in the long shot to fine tune the sound with pair of tubes then being stock with what you don't have any control of and its only a matter of time when bug hits again. It would be nice if one could come up with the formula that would answer the question to which is the best preamp out there. However, there is no such a thing and it never will be as long as there is two or more audiophiles with opinions and different tastes. I sill stand behide my opinion that you have more freedom and flexibility with tubes then SS and that leads to longer satisfaction. It is only my opinion Dave nothing personal.