Tubeguys:How much "tube sound" from tube players?

Oh well, here I go again bucking the system of many other posts. I have been running with tube DACs, phono stages, line stages and power amps for many years.

If I had only one link in the chain that I could put tubes, this is an easy one: the line stage. Time and time again, I can change all the other components in the system and for the most part, retain the decays, ambience, portrayal of space, etc., that I worked hard to achieve. But so far only a handful of line stages out there have come through in this way....and every one of them has been tube based. Such a unit having tubes guarantees nothing, but this is true for any tube based product.

The tube DAC or tube phono stage would be my next choices. The tube DAC brings my digital playback closer to analog like none of the multitude of solid state DACs that I have so far tried. The fullness of the piano is especially impressive. And some recent passive component updates here has dramatically improved the frequency extreme performance.

All of the above options are with tubes in enclosed chassis so they should be just as safe as SS pieces.

The power amp selection depends entirely on the speakers to be used. And this is a good place to find an amp that balances out the strengths/weaknesses in the rest of your system. I would not buy an amp soley because it has tubes or not. I feel you can get a whole lot of the tube magic in the front end.

John

Interesting perspective, John.

More along the lines of what is normally experienced by audiophiles, I think. Again I go against the grain when I say that I'd rather go with a solid state preamp and a tube power and than what is the more accepted route. However, you are one of the more trusted members on the site in my eyes. The way we both see things is more or less different, and that's why I think this site is so interesting. We are in 100% agreement that a sympathetic speaker must be mated with a tube amplifier. Utterly amazing how often this doesn't happen.

It's funny, because one of my best audio buddies has a perspective that kind of straddles us both. Go figure!

I've never had to make a choice except for the recent purchase of a SS CDP (although I do have two SS amps about which I only use in emergencies).

After giving this a great deal of thought ( :-) ) I think I agree with Trelja.

It is probably far easier to get a SS preamp that is neutral and not subtractive, than it is to get a SS amp that will ever sound like a tube amp. Of course one would have to be exceptionally critical of the source as you wouldn't be able to use the pre-amp to change tone if it were SS. The more I think about it, if I had to make a choice I would probably use a high quality passive pre-amp and an appropriate tube amp/speakers to match the sonic's of the CDP (and/or the phono pre).

Thanks everyone for your experience and views: John: when you say "I feel you can get a whole lot of the tube magic in the front end." I assume you mean it's possible to get some of the tube magic from a player?