Good tube preamp w/ HT bypass


I've finally decided to snag an AVM30 for my pre-pro, and aragon 8008 amps for my amplification (or Sherbourne 7/2100 - I bought both, and will sell whichever I like less).

However, I keep hearing about tubes! I don't have any experience with them, but I'd love to give it a try. I've read that by combining SS amplification with tube preamps, I can preserve the bass control of the SS w/ the midrange of tubes.

SO - are there any preamps you can recommend to me to try and/or demo? I need it to have HT bypass, so I can use my HT rig separately from this...

I've read the Rogue Magnum 66 is good... The audio research sp-16l is supposed to be good... And the TAD-150 was recommended to me (http://www.angelfire.com/biz/bizzyb/TAD-150.html) but I can't find any other information on it.

Non tube pres that have been recommended to me are the sonic euphoria plc and adcom 750; but i'm not sure if either would better the avm30.

Oh; budget would be $500-1000, used or new. Thanks for any recommendations!
kincade

Showing 4 responses by kr4

I thought I posted this yesterday but I'll try again:

The SF Line series has dual paralleled outputs for SE and for BAL. How about feeding the HT L/R outs to one on the OUTS on the SF? As long as the HT pre/pro is off, it should not load the SF running in stereo. As long as the SF is off, the HT output should be fed directly to the other SF OUT and on to its amp.

I have not tried this and I cannot be certain it will work but it may be a solution.
Is there a reason why you are committed to tubes? I would think one should choose on the basis of sound and auditioning and keep one's options open.

Kal
I just checked the schematics for the SF Line series and the HT bypass is a complete bypass: No active circuitry except for switching.

Kal