If I can't afford a new Conrad Johnson pre amp...

Agree with what is written above.  There are used CJ tube pre's out there at affordable prices.  Older ones are more tubey sounding, newer ones more extended more transparent but still give you the tube magic in the midrange and spatial cues.

All Conrad Johnson preamps sound pretty darn good even the entry level including both solid state and tube. So if you can't afford the more expensive models try the less expensive ones, you will be happy.

@noromance 
Yes there is a volume control on the power amp. It will surely sound OK, but it will sound so much better with a good pre amp.

@oddiofyl  and @decooney 
I'm sure Conrad Johnson Classic 2SE sounds good. How good I will never know. Ads I have found say; "Doesn't post to Sweden".

@oddiofyl 1,211 posts03-18-2020 5:03pmI have a conrad - johnson Classic 2SE... it is a great sounding pre.   I love it , they can be had reasonably .  It is void of any features like balance or remote but it sounds phenominal for the money.  Quicksilver Audio makes great equipment for the money, they make 2 tube pres that are affordable. One is remote the other is not. I have a pair of their amps and their new headphone amp and the price/performance ratio is hard to beat.  

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re: QS,
+1, with matched vintage input and driver tubes and ultra nice coupling caps in the amps (shhh) competes with most anything at `~2-3x the price. :) 

I have a conrad - johnson Classic 2SE... it is a great sounding pre.    I love it , they can be had reasonably .   It is void of any features like balance or remote but it sounds phenominal for the money.   Quicksilver Audio makes great equipment for the money, they make 2 tube pres that are affordable.  One is remote the other is not.  I have a pair of their amps and their new headphone amp and the price/performance ratio is hard to beat.   

Isn't there a volume control on your poweramp? If one source, forego the preamp.

I think that conrad-johnson had a reputation of a warm, golden sound in years past.   Their more recent preamps have a more neutral sound as many other tube preamps have also become more neutral.  The warm, colored sound has gone out of favor for tube preamps.  

For c-j this move started with their Premier 16 and Premier 17 preamps.  Those are considered good preamps and may still have some of the old c-j sound.  So their preamps became progressively more neutral after those and are more colored before those.

I don't know if c-j made gear to work with European voltages.  I'd guess that you can find European tube gear with the warm sound you're looking for.  If you really want to try c-j gear, you can find descriptions and specs on their website, and you can find the gear for sale using the Hifi Shark search site that monitors many audio market websites.