Tubes are not that difficult, and the cool part about it is that you can upgrade (roll) your tubes and custom tailor the sounds to meet your audio needs. Some tubes provide more bass, some are warmer, and others have sweeet highs, but the greatest thing about tubes is the full body sound that I've never heard in solid state pre amps. But, I've also gone back to vinyl so I may not be the best person to ask in regards to maintenance free audio.
Need SS preamp that sounds like tube .
I love the tube sound, but I don't necessarily want the tubes. I currently run a CJ PV12. Does anyone have any ideas? My main problem is that auditioning is limited in my area. I am pretty confident that the SS CJ stuff will sound tube-like. But I don't even think there is a dealer in my area. Some needed information: run a Bryston 4B-ST for power, Meridian 508.24 for CD, some PMC FB-1 monitors for speakers, silver Audioquest cable all around. I would like to keep the damage under 5K. As for auditions in my area, I can probably find Bryston, Audio Research, Aragon, Meridian. Oh, I'm sure these stores are authorized dealers for a lot of stuff, but they don't carry some of the pricy brands in stock or as demo. Help would be appreciated.