Dvjorge,
You and I have some similarities here, so fwiw:
I too had B&K amps, first a B&K ST140 and later an EX442 Sonata (200 wpc dual mono) and many yrs ago, I too was told that a tube preamp was the way to go. I bought into the idea because it made sense and never looked back. Now, I am completely a tube person.
From time to time I go back to SS gear but never for any amount of time because I really like the warmth and realism that only tubes can bring.
I've also heard megabuck gear from ML, Krell, etc (6 figure systems) and to me much less expensive tube int amps sounded better...
The B&K gear was traditionally always very warm and tubey sounding (I went head to head with my EX442 and a pr of tube monoblocks and almost couldn't tell the difference!) so adding a tube front end onto the B&K stuff is a great combo. I owned a Music Reference RM5mkII for 5 yrs with my B&K ST140/EX442 and surprisingly a lowly Dyna PAS2 sounded much more euphonic when I used it for a short time. I would think a cj preamp would also make a great combo with your B&K amp...
But as Baranyi mentioned above, why not just go to a tube int. amp right now. I think once you get a tube preamp with the B&K, you'll like it so much, you'll eventually wind up getting rid of the B&K for a tube amp or tube integrated...
You and I have some similarities here, so fwiw:
I too had B&K amps, first a B&K ST140 and later an EX442 Sonata (200 wpc dual mono) and many yrs ago, I too was told that a tube preamp was the way to go. I bought into the idea because it made sense and never looked back. Now, I am completely a tube person.
From time to time I go back to SS gear but never for any amount of time because I really like the warmth and realism that only tubes can bring.
I've also heard megabuck gear from ML, Krell, etc (6 figure systems) and to me much less expensive tube int amps sounded better...
The B&K gear was traditionally always very warm and tubey sounding (I went head to head with my EX442 and a pr of tube monoblocks and almost couldn't tell the difference!) so adding a tube front end onto the B&K stuff is a great combo. I owned a Music Reference RM5mkII for 5 yrs with my B&K ST140/EX442 and surprisingly a lowly Dyna PAS2 sounded much more euphonic when I used it for a short time. I would think a cj preamp would also make a great combo with your B&K amp...
But as Baranyi mentioned above, why not just go to a tube int. amp right now. I think once you get a tube preamp with the B&K, you'll like it so much, you'll eventually wind up getting rid of the B&K for a tube amp or tube integrated...