Nice Tube Preamp for Boulder 1060

Hessec, sounds like a plan; trying different cabling. I think the synergy between amp and pre-amp is an important factor in achieving best sound; impedence matching, etc. Boulder amp and pre is a combination that is hard to beat in my listening experience. I've heard Magico V3 several times and get to spend a lot of listening time with a close friend who has M5. When you find the right combination the system should sing.

What preamp do you have? I had a 1012 matched to a 2060 amp with Maxx 2 speakers for years and have a few ideas as to what will help. FWIW, all cables have some sound. Silver is detailed but bright. It sounds like you have too much of that already. List your equipment, including power conditioning and I can get more specific.

"I might want something a little more “forgiving”
"speakers are still breaking in but they are sounding a little harsh right now”

I can empathize with your impatience. But if you wait for your speakers to fully break-in, you will make a better decision, if one is even necessary.

Yes, I am an impatient person and the "break in" of products drives me nuts. I probably have 150hrs on them and the lower range is becoming very nice. I realize that this is a very revealing/transparent setup and may never be my cup of tea, I don't know. I have pulled out all my "exotic" outlets that may(I think they do) or may not enhance resolution (how, I don't know but some combination of metals??) etc.. I am going to try out some copper cabling soon and if it doesn't work i'll just resell it. I have been through a lot of cables in the past couple years and thought I had exactly what I was looking for until I got the bug for a different speaker. The previous speakers' coloration and lack of transparency is readily apparent now...... I will give them another 100hrs or so before making any drastic changes. Although, my thoughts are that if it sounds bright now, it will never completely go away as this is the character (unforgiving) of the speakers and call it tone controls or not but not every product works for every component. The easiest way to take the edge off would be replacing the silver. Just my thought, I'm sure there are a million others.

Boulder 1060/1010
Simaudio Andromeda
No turntable.
No power conditioners- i've tried and can not justify their price/performance ratio.
I also have a dedicated line.

Thank you to all for the recommendations.

Depending on the length of your cables you have a variety of preamp choices. However the balanced line system was conceived with the idea of eliminating audible differences between cables, so if it is done right, length is not an issue either.

Most tube preamps don't support the balanced standard, despite having balanced outputs. I have only seen one that does. If you can keep the cable short though, there are plenty of balanced tube preamps that will do the job. I think you will find that the move is quite worthwhile- your speakers may break in further but a good tube preamp will bring detail without brightness that so far has not been possible with transistors.