For tube sound, which is more important: preamp or power amp?


I have always loved the “tube sound” - warmth, midrange, soundstage. Through the years (since about 1975), I have owned many tube and solid state amps and preamps, in various combinations. Presently, I have a tube amp and a solid state preamp. But like most of you, I am thinking of making changes, again.  Not to cloud the discussion, the specific brands are not important.  I also listen to acoustic music, females vocals, love mini monitors, EL34s, NOS tubes, and don’t care that much about bass.  So you can see that my taste fits the tube sound very well. But I have had systems that are too warm, not enough dynamics or details, and fat in the low end, too.

okay, now to the discussion.  To produce the tube sound, which is more important: the preamp or the power amp?  Let’s talk in general, and (if possible? May not be) not tied to one specific piece/brand/model of equipment.  I know there are exceptions to any general rule.  Not sure if it makes a difference to your comments, but I have no phono and am running line stage only.

As an attempt to prevent the conversation as going in a big tangent, let’s assume equality of price/quality. i.e. not comparing a $10k power amps contribution to a system to that of a $1k preamp.  Let’s also assume that the amp (tube or solid state) can drive the speakers just fine, such that compatibility does not limit the decision. And ignore mono blocks versus stereo amp differences.  

two follow ons: I have  the perception that preamps give you more bang for the buck - meaning that it takes less money to get a great tube preamp compared to a great tube amp.  Agree/disagree? And second, I have never owned a tube dac or CD player, and will assume that tubes in either of these is less critical than in a preamp or power amp. Agree/disagree?

i am interested in your thoughts.

Bill
meiatflask

Showing 2 responses by nugat

I tested various tube/SS scenarios with my Shiit Freya preamp, SS hypex n-core and Airtight AM201 tube amplifiers and Shiit Yggdrasil DAC. Freya offers three options: passive, FET, tube. For the last position I use 1940's VT231 Tung Sols. Here are my observations for preamp/amp combinations. Since I don't hear  meaningful differences between passive and FET positions of Freya, I'll just use "passive" here.

Passive+AM201-- good "tube" sound combo 
TungSol+AM201-- too much of the good thing. Euphony blurs detail.
Passive+ncore  -- maximum detail and truth
TungSol+ncore -- less detail more euphonic. I use it for jazz with female  vocals. The voices become a bit "sunny and smiley".

In practice I use the last two positions for the convenience of switching Freya only and no need of recabling.
 
The OP question (and more) was answered 40 years ago by Bob Carver.
Short story:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Carver
Long story:
https://www.stereophile.com/content/carver-challenge

In brief, Bob Carver Challenge proved that he could emulate any "top"
amplifier with his 400$ (then) model with some pots and circuits to shape the transfer
function. Therefore it’s logical to employ amps as pure "wire with gain" devices and shape the sound to taste upstream.