The sound of glasswear

Maybe "pain in the ass" was harsh...I was referring to the fact that tubes are always in a state of flux, thus you have to monitor them for subtle changes as they die (in guitar amps I really don't care as long as they're biased and not burning up...preamp tubes last so long I sort of forget about them). SS gear (in my experience anyway) just keeps on truckin' with no audible degradation for a very long time.

I think Atmasphere hit it on the head. I run both btw...

To answer the above , I don't no if the Salons are tube friendly or not , there very neutral , I had used them with ARC's Ref 3 pre for a few years with no problem .
I have considered the MXR's but I am also using the Ayre C5MP CD player and seem to be getting alot of the Ayre sound already , I was afraid a third Ayre product might be to much of a good thing .
My local dealer sells ARC , but only stock the HD220 hybrid , I'm not a big fan .
The 610T is a bit out of my reach , the Ref210 would fit the bill but it would be buy before you try as they don't stock these amps , and the Ref210's 200 watt output is also 200w at 4ohm . My currant Levinsons 200w at 8ohm and 400w at 4ohm is just sufficient . Regards Tim

>>03-17-11: Stringreen
Solid state tends to come online more immediately than do tubes. As tubes warm, they sometimes create low sonic pulses that can damage a speaker under certain instances. When the 2 units are turned on together, the preamp opens sooner while the amp is warming, and there go the speakers. It is better to have all solid state, or all tube<<

It doesn't get any dumber than this folks.

Thanks Audiofeil. It sounded wacky to me as well, which seemed confirmed when I asked for details and didn't receive a reply.