Is Solid State Preamp and Tube Amp A Good Combo?

I've been running the Accuphase C-200 with my McIntosh MC60s and A-116s and the sounds have been quite clear and accurate and crisp. That being said, when I swap out my C-200 for my McIntosh MX110, the difference is night and day in the sound, much fuller and rounder compared to the Accuphase. But they are really very different pieces to begin with.

When I've told people about that set up, it did raise a brow, but when asked to justify why it had to be the other way around, no one really had a straight answer.

Enjoy being "backwards" and just listen to some awesome music.

I cannot thank you all enough for all the feedback you have given so far. I just went ahead and paid for them. This would be an interesting quest for me. If they do not work for me, there is always the Audiogon market or might also give tube preamps a try. Hope to provide an update when the amps arrive.

I've tried it both ways and so far the Rowland Capri preamp and VAC Auricle Musicbloc amps have been the best combination.

I'm using a Rowland Capri linestage with Melody 300B SET amps and it works beautifully! I needed a pre that could be left on all the time, but couldn't give up the sound of tubes...result has been excellent! Not quite up to my Atma-Sphere / Atma-Sphere setup in a different room/house, but quite satisfying, nonetheless. Of course that setup was almost 8 times more expensive too!!

If your speakers are a decent match with the amp, it will work well!!

I agree with all said by the so far majority here. I will add ss to tube ... less fuzz on the peach ... more dynamics. But as one said it is all in the the total of the entire system ... down to wire matching for sound and .... of course somewhat your taste and ears.

I used to have McCormack Micro Line Drive hooked up with VTL MB100. I loved this combo. IMHO you'll get a large dynamic headroom vs. tube pre and SS amp due to the large out/input impedance difference.

Yes, you'll read a lot of posts about using a tube preamp with a sand amp. No reason not to do it the other way round unless you really can't deal with the heat of the output tubes in you listening room. Everything depends on how the gear sounds together.

I use a Klyne SK-5A solid-state preamp with a pair of Audio Space Nova M34 monoblocks.

I ran a klyne 6lx3p with vtl225 monoblocks and cary slam 100's driving dunlavy sc3's and soundlab m2's;I was very happy with the results.
I was a solid state person and once I tried tubes never went back;it is a very worthly experience;only you will know if you like or dislike it;and you can always resell the pieces if you choose to.
There are a lot of great users on this forum with excellant advice and experiences;a ton more than me.
I have always received excellant advice here and even get to exchange ideas and questions with some of the design engineers and makers of excellant gear.
Enjoy the quest!!!!

In lieu of having heard that specific combo, I think it will certainly "work" and its certainly reasonable to try it.

Like someone said, if its not quite what your looking for, then you can adapt from there.

Some folks have concluded that most of the benefits of 'tube' in your system is their existence in your amps. Tubes in pre-amps and sources has as much to do with tone, bloom, air, etc, which will not pass unscathed thru a SS amp. I tend to agree with them, and see the comparison/result of using a SS pre-amp to be comparable to using a properly matched and set up passive line stage, only the SS might add a bit of 'drive' if you need it. If I could only have tubes in one place it would be in the amps.

Stanwal is right, you have nothing (except a few bucks) to loose if you don't like the sound and either decide to sell or get a pre-amp with tubes to get a better/different tone.

But, FWIW, re tone, before you buy the Rogues as opposed to any amp, consider their tonal signature and how they will interface with your speakers. Tube amps are not all created equal - there is far greater divergency between them from each other than comparing one ss amp with another ss amp.

FWIW.

A hybrid is a design that uses both technologies in the same unit. For example an amp that uses tubes in the front end and transistors in the output stage. While most do it as konky says there is no general reason why you cannot use these together. The audio police will not arrest you. Plug them in and see what you think. If you want to be really cautious look up the output impedance of your preamp and check with Rogue, but I wouldn't bother myself, it will not blow up or be so offended by having its signal provided by solid state that it will refuse to play.

The other way around would be better.