tube pre amp plus solid state power amps?

It's perfectly normal to use SS amp and tube pre, however, IMO, since you had tube amp, McCormack will kill your ears (my personal experience). Classe, YBA or something like that will do MUCH better. Again, IMO.

I have owned both of those amps. The McCormack is good but may not provide enough of the type of sound you are used to. Also, be very careful when matching tube preamps with SS amps. The McCormack has an input impedance of only 10K ohms and you want to have at least a factor of 10 (preferrably 20 or more) between the output impedance of your preamp and the input impedance of your amp (amp input imp. being 10x or more greater). Be careful of the preamp manufacturer's specs since some list the output impedance taken at 1K Hz while the actual high output impedance may be much greater in the bass due to limited coupling capacitor size. In the case of the McCormack, this would prematurely roll off the bass. Try to find information such as JA's Stereophile "measurements" on your preamp. The Clayton's generally have a much higher input impedance (my M200's are 100K ohms) and would mate well with virtually any preamp. The Clayton's are very nice SS amps and would provide much closer to the sound you are used to with your tube amps than the McCormack. Also consider hybrid amps such as Lamm M1.2, Blue Circle or Moscode. These use tubes in the earlier stages and SS ouput stages. The Lamm's in particular are excellent. I have not heard the others.

I would power up the tube stuff first, than the solid state stuff so no unwanted turn on transients will destroy your speakers.

Suikang

I think I understand your dilemma. I’ve heard from more than one person the Clayton amps give you more of the tube sound, but there are others which will too. The post on hybrid amps are a very good thought. Another couple to consider there are Butler & now Dodd Audio’s new one.

the thoughts on impedance mating are quite thoughtful too and very important.

I’ve found the most noteable diff from a tube amp to an SS amp is simple… impact & speed. Is that your goal? Is it worth it to you to sacrifice the voice of the tube amp to acquire it? Naturally if you are merely adding too instead of replacing, the aspiration is less important…. As then you’ll have both on hand for whatever mood you’re in at the time.

Each and every account of the thoughts you’ve so far read are all subjective ones. For those people only, they found such and such results satisfactory or not. Now you want to find out for yourself… and you should I suppose… if as I said, you seek more speed and impact, especially down deep in the bandwidth.

There is definitely no right or wrong way to go. No better or worse way to recreate the sound. You alone have to choose what’s best for yourself. Forget about perfect. It’s an illusion. Get what appeals to you… not someone else. The only way to know however is you must try it/them and decide… or just be happy with what you have now.

I’ve got a cheap but pretty good SS amp in my Odyssey Stratos Plus + amp. I’ve also got a Butler hybrid amp and a pair of Dodd mono block EL34 amps. Each amp has it’s own way of presenting the sound. I like them all.

For many types of regular use I like the combo of my tube preamp + the Butler TDB 5150. Overall it has no overt shortcomings. Plays every genre very well. It’s true strengths are in the bass and control of the speakers top to bottom. It has the ease and refinement of tubes, and the control and speed of it’s bipolar output devices… but not the decay or harmonics of pure tube topology amps.

In short, it doesn’t have the voice of the Dodd amps though. The Dodd MK II 120wpc monos are vastly superior to the Butler in the mids and upper end yet I prefer to use a sub when they are in play.

I do dig where you are coming from on the upkeep of the tubes being sometimes a chore. It always comes down to making a choice IMO… a compromise usually. Hybrids are a very good idea for those who want to try to bridge the gap from pure SS to tubes. Yet even with hybrids until (I suspect) you get well into the more pricey ones, like LLamm, BC, Moscodes newest version, Butler’s Monad, or Gary Dodds latest entry, they will always be a compromise… allowing for a taste of tubes only, but with better speed and control of the speakers.

Other considerations might be Wolcott, or the Pass x.5 series amps. Choosing depends on what you want from the amp and your squeakers demands for power of course… and then there’s the cost too.

AS far as I know it, a great tube preamp is only half the sound of a great tube preamp and a great set of tube amps. No more or less. Adding a SS amp will reduce the flavor by half just about. In your case I’d presume by a third as you also use a tube phono stage.

Very good luck.