Preamp for Clayton Audio S40?

No personal experience with the S40 or M100 but did an awful lot of research on them as they were #1 on my list to buy when I was searching for power amps. Their un-availabilty in the used market made me look elsewhere.

You might want to read this article:
http://www.soundstage.com/weaver05.htm
Look in the section "Have a Cigar.." where Weaver talks about the various preamps he tried out with the S40.

I have also read that the M100 monos have a 47K Ohm input impedance. Does this mean that the S40 does too? Don't know but it could suggest that Clayton amps have high inp. impedance so mating with a tube amp might not get the best out of them. They might certainly sound very good but you'll never know if you've got the very best out of them.
Here's the other article (on the M100) where some do's & don'ts on preamps is mentioned:
http://www.audaud.com/audaud/APR02/EQUIP/equip3APR02.html

FWIW.

Newbee,

Yes, I'm quite sure that I know about input impedances & their loading effects on the prior stage.

What I was trying to say in my post was that despite Clayton amps having a reasonably high inp. impedance, it might not be high enough as tube preamps themselves have a high output impedance.
Of course, it might be the case that a tube pre will work just fine with the Clayton but I just wanted to make David aware of the *potential* interplay between the tube pre output imp. & Clayton inp. impedance.

BTW, did you read that 2nd article I pointed David to? The reviewer there also mentions this very same point! Do spend some time to read it.

Newbee,

>>IMHO the user should keep an open mind should he have an >>inclination to a tube pre-amp and not just blindly >>exclude one because of this reviewers comments.

Fully agree with your opinion! I'm of the same mind. However, when providing advice I've found it best to be conservative & maybe over-mindfull than the other way around. Hence my comments to David.
My overall opinion on pro reviewers is mixed for obvious reasons. However, many times I find that they do express a valid point & re. the Clayton they *just might* have a valid point. I don't have personal experience. I hope that some other Clayton users, who have compared the perf. using both SS & tube pre to see which is better, chime in here .