2. amps-preamps
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Think I want a tube system?

I've haven't listened to a tube system in 30 or 40 years. (I'm retired). I have several general questions. I hope y'all (South Alabama) will help me. I have a fair solid state power amp (Onkya M-504 165w per channel) No pre amp.
Which is the most important a tube pre amp or a tube power amp or both tubes. I would like to keep the power amp, but would sell if necessary. My second question is a little more complicated. If I play music from cds or internet download, isn't that digital. If I recall,digital is not an analog wave form but samples taken along it's path to reproduce an analog wave. The more samples the closer to analog. However, many people felt that no mater how many samples were taken, the nuance of a pure sound wave would be lost. If this is the case, what can tubes give me if my source is digital. Back to vinyl? Even then do they now record digital? I hope this is wrong.
rryall
daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,877 posts
 
Hifihvn, I disagree with you. I think that the preamp is a MAJOR factor in where your sound comes from. Get the preamp wrong and the rest is history.
BUT with the right preamp and the wrong amp, well you may get an acceptable sound. IMHO, a good tube preamp is a very good building block in which to start.
tom_hankins
928 posts
 
Agree with Hifihvn. I would go with (and have) SS preamp and tube amp over the other way around..
unsound
7,329 posts
 
Daveyf, I couldn't disagree with you more.
daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,877 posts
 
Unsound, you might want to try a great tube preamp in your system and then get back to me.
Tom, take your very nice BAT preamp out and replace it with a cold ss preamp and I would be interested to see what you would think then, OTOH, leave the BAT in the system and replace the tube amps with a ss amp. I suspect you would way prefer the latter. Just IMHO..:0)
daverz
487 posts
 
The input impedance of the Onkyo is 20k Ohm, at least according to this info:

http://www.ehow.com/list_7326410_onkyo-m_504-specs.html

This will probably sound too lean with many tube preamps.
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