Pass Labs Preamps with tube amps?

+1 @ghdprentice 

I have owned XP-30 and XP-32 preamps feeding into a very good set of SET hybrid monoblock, not quite satisfactory.  IMO Pass is an excellent amplifier company comparable in their price range, and make just alright preamplifiers.  Again YMMV.

Have an XP-32 and it is excellent.  My friend had an XP22 but I always felt, although a bit more dynamic, it was lacking in naturalness and palpability.  Thx XP32 is in a different category form everything under it.  He ended up selling his 22 for a Coda pre.  He seems happy with that for now.  

Thanks everyone... I've decided to stick to my original plan and get a good tube preamp, and then hookup my SET amps, and get a Pass XA25 for solid state. 

I chose the McIntosh C22 MKIV for couple reasons, mainly: 
* has a tubed MM/MC phono stage (I play vinyl about 30% of time so the C22 should be 'good enough' especially with a tube roll). 
* has tone controls and loudness - I listen alot at lower volumes and it is nice to bump something a tad if I need to. 
 

The name is on it but Nelson does not design his preamps. They are an afterthought for him.

I have both a great tube preamp and a Pass-Labs XP-22 preamp and I love both. I also have a great 300-B SET amplifier and three terrific flea-watt class-A solid-state amplifiers that I use with both preamps. When I first got the XP-22 preamp, I didn’t enjoy the sound as much as the tube preamp, however that soon diminished as the XP-22 broke in. I enjoy both preamps and also enjoy my tube and solid-state amps all of which have their specific sonic nuances. The XP-22 works very well with my SET tube amp. Very articulate and sonically well balanced. And Pass-Labs products are known for their high reliability. While Nelson isn’t the primary design engineer for the preamps, his cohort Wayne Colbern is the designer, and I wouldn’t expect that Nelson would not be involved in releasing any of Waynes preamp designs without extensive listening by Nelson. I like my XP-22 so much that I got an XP-12 for my daughter two years ago for her birthday,