$18k Tube preamp for large scale symphonies please

The Tube Research Labs Dude is perfect for your needs. It is designed in such a way that the music always sounds powerful and at ease. By at ease I mean there is no sign of strain or compression. Music flows in a natural and dynamic manner.

The Dude has made every other pre I have listened to or owned sound rather puny and kind of small - like an electronic toy if you will. Yes, exaggerated statement to help directionally.

The newest Dudes cost $6,000 new and come with Duelund CAST coupling caps and the best build quality I have seen in the Dudes.

Read my online review for more info and to see the other preamps I have compared it to.

Have fun!

Philipwu, I will try and help you hear the sound of the Dude (latest generation) with my words. The Dude is a full bodied, dynamic beast of audio. The stage is big, bold and effortless. The music is powerful, robust and never constrained.

In it's latest generation the Dude is richly resolving bringing out all of music's finer details and nuances. It seems to handle and pull off two things that are very hard to do at the same time.

1) Clear window to the music with SOTA resolving ability.
2) But the Dude is not light or overly airy. It is full bodied and the Dude portrays music with the meat, body and density I hear in the natural instrument and voice.

Tube choice is also important with any of these preamps. The Dude responds very well to tube rolling. Place Marconi 6sn7 tubes and you fatten the sound with a slightly warm personality. Use nice 1940 RCA's and the Dude is more resolving and intimate.

The bass is absolutely stunning in power and articulation. A real strength in this preamp.

Great thread with many great preamp choices. Life is a blessing!

Merry Christmass to all!

Correction - Merry Christmas - sorry for the typo.....

Atma is spot on here. A good preamp will play all music good. A great preamp will play all music great. Now, the speaker is the piece that may play one form of music better. I have found the more resolving a great preamp and system is the better all music sounds.

Atmasphere, while on paper I agree with you that a preamp with an output impedance of 5k - 10k ohms does not seem like a good match with an amp with an input impedance of say 20k - 50k ohms, why do these combos sometimes work so darn well? No bass roll off at all and wonderful music.

I know from experience that what on paper should not work can work gloriously in reality. I am not sure why this is, but it is. Any ideas?

Thanks Al. In the situations I have heard the IC's were 1 meter and low capacitance. Perhaps this has also played a role.