2. amps-preamps
  3. 1030560489

Mixing SS and Tubes

I'm thinking about getting into tubes and have read threads about mixing SS amps with tube preamps. What about the other way around? Are there any advantages (or disadvantages) with mixing a ss preamp with a tube amp? I currently have a MAC MA6450 which I was thinking of using for the preamp side and then getting a reasonable tube amp to play around with. If this is worthwhile, any suggestions for the tube amp (< $1000) would be appreciated.

Thanks!
stereomaniac

Showing 2 responses by unsound

unsound
7,315 posts
 
I can't help but think your speakers will have a lot to do with your ultimate success. Using tube amps tends to be the more expensive alternative.
unsound
7,315 posts
 
Tbg, I'm not sure if your question was addressed to me or not. Many speakers have impedance loads or power requirements that are challenging to many tube amplifiers. I agree with you that the impedance matching of tubes to solid state can be an issue, but there are some fairly low out put impedance tube pre-amps (Sonic Frontiers Line 3, etc.) and some fairly high input impedance solid state amps (Electrocompaniet, McCormack, C-J, etc.) to work with.
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