Mr Tennis: When it comes to tube gear, you frequently focus on the tonal colorations of such products. But this is only one area where tube gear is often different from solid state. And in many modern tube products, the tonality maybe be very similar to solid state products. But tonal colorations is not at all what I am after when I evaluate tube products.
I run with the Aria WV5 XL preamp and this unit does not have the classic tube tonal (euphonic) colorations. What it does do that virtually no solid state products can do, and that which very very few tube products can do, is render decays and harmonic overtones in a most natural way....and with awesome clarity to boot. THIS, the portrayal of space, is the reason to run with tube preamps.
When you "reviewed" the Mcintosh preamp, you heard absolutely no "tube-like character" such as prolonged decays or ambient information compared to the typically sterile solid state line stage? Really?
I run with the Aria WV5 XL preamp and this unit does not have the classic tube tonal (euphonic) colorations. What it does do that virtually no solid state products can do, and that which very very few tube products can do, is render decays and harmonic overtones in a most natural way....and with awesome clarity to boot. THIS, the portrayal of space, is the reason to run with tube preamps.
When you "reviewed" the Mcintosh preamp, you heard absolutely no "tube-like character" such as prolonged decays or ambient information compared to the typically sterile solid state line stage? Really?