tubes and rock and roll, good fit?

I agree that tube pre-amp + Class D amp is a very effective way to introduce tubes into a system with speakers that are not designed to be tube friendly (low efficiency, low impedance).

The final answer is YES! A resounding, unequivocal, with out hesitation YES! This is not to diminish SS. They achieve diferant yet similar results. Though I will say the siegfrieds are not bloomy like a lot of the lower watt tube amps. They are not harsh like a lot of SS amps. They are sweet like class A rated SS amps but with more bloom. They fall somewhere between SS and tubes, leaning toward tubes. They have that punch and power at the bottom end and finesse and sweetness for the mids and upper end sounds. They reproduce rock and acoustic music with, I believe, no added house sound. Just whats on the vinyl, with all the impact that exsists between the grooves. As far as their match with my altairs, no issues at all. They are a great fit! A FINAL DESTINATION!

Just as a reference point: the entire Woodstock Festival was amplified with four McIntosh tube amps. Rock and Roll started with tubes, including the amps used by the guitar players.

I have thought of going with a tube amp or preamp myself and am still mulling it over. There is a difference in the sound from a tube amp as opposed to a solid state amp for home audio, but I doubt that you want the same quality that musicians are after. Tubes are prized in guitar amps because of the breakup when overdriven. The idea is to get the distortion and tube distortion, not solid state distortion, is what is sought after. Indeed, if one is not getting the tubes "hot" in a guitar amp there really is no point in going tube. Just look at the amps that clapton etc uses or used - typically Marshall and they are all tubes. It really depends on what you are after in a home listening enviornment. I can guarentee that you are not after the same effect as a rock guitarist- you defniitely do not want 'crunch' in a home sound system. If I do go with a tube pre or amp my goal is certainly not to get a sound that is accurate with respect to what is on the source (CD in my case but the same holds true for any source). Rather it is to get a somewhat different sound, a little toned down - as I am thinking of mating to horns for the high spl without the potential harshness.

Tubes work great for Guitars and stereo. I'll never go back to SS. I just sold a Marshall 100 watt JCM 800 Lead series signed by Jim Marshall to a friend that just bought a new Slant Stack. I took him 10 minutes to buy mine and 2 hours to sell his SS. If you can afford tubes go for it. Happy listening.