Migration to Seperates

Running a tube preamp into the amp section of your integrated should give you a taste of what a tube preamp might do, even if, as Judsauce points out, it might not show you how good separates can be.

To do this, connect the tube preamp to the MAIN AMP-IN input; do not connect it to a line-level input like CD or AUX, as these are intended for sources only.

Regarding your second question, Jimmy: yes, you are right. remove the jumpers, which act as cables between preamp and power amp, and then run a cable from the tube preamp into the amp-in connector on your integrated.

Doing this will will allow you to utilize only the amp section of your integrated. Keep in mind, though, that the preamp section of the integrated will still be "on," but it won't be "engaged," so it won't be part of your signal chain. But since it will be on, it may interfere to some degree with your amplifiers performance, as some would say it already does, by virtue of it being an integrated amplifier. I don't completely understand this idea myself, but I think this is what Judsause means, and it's also why so many audiophiles prefer separates, because separates completely isolate the components (which integrated don't do), thus providing better sonic performance.

That said, I think your integrated is a very good piece (I wish I had it), and I don't really know how much better a separate power amp might sound over that which is in your integrated. But I don't know. Hopefully some others will chime in...

This sounds like a good plan. Please report back after hooking up the tubes. I'm also thinking about adding a tube pre and using the amp section of my integrated (at least until I can afford a new amp), so I'd like to hear your impressions.