Saxo, your comment
is really not right. Hum and grounding issues have nothing to do with the preamp being tube or solid state. It has to do with other design elements, such as power supply design and how well the designer understood internal grounding technique.
It is a fact that not all tube preamps suffer the colorations you describe also. In fact my experience is the opposite- that transistor preamp are far more colored (read: bright, analytical, stilted, etc.; clearly a different type of coloration than the types that tubes **can** exhibit). From your description, I have to guess that you have been listening to older/budget tube preamps??
I concede that tube preamps do need more service, like checking the tubes every 6 months/1 year. But a good tube preamp will also give you more music and that makes the price of admission cheap by comparison.
More hum and ground problems than with SS by far.
is really not right. Hum and grounding issues have nothing to do with the preamp being tube or solid state. It has to do with other design elements, such as power supply design and how well the designer understood internal grounding technique.
It is a fact that not all tube preamps suffer the colorations you describe also. In fact my experience is the opposite- that transistor preamp are far more colored (read: bright, analytical, stilted, etc.; clearly a different type of coloration than the types that tubes **can** exhibit). From your description, I have to guess that you have been listening to older/budget tube preamps??
I concede that tube preamps do need more service, like checking the tubes every 6 months/1 year. But a good tube preamp will also give you more music and that makes the price of admission cheap by comparison.