SS or Tube for Sonus Faber Concertino?

A couple of years ago I owned the original Concertinos for a few months and drove them with a VTL 50 watt tube amp. For me I felt that they sounded underpowered. I sold the Concertinos before I tried them with a different amp. Maybe my memory is fuzzy or now my ears are more tuned but I remember first hearing the Concertinos in the late 90's at a Tweeter store (remember those) and they sounded quite good driven by a Marantz SS receiver. I distinctly remember them having a sparkle that I wasn't able to reproduce with the tube amp. Again, maybe my memory is fuzzy and the Concertinos were the first truly high end speaker that I had heard up to that point.

Hl10027, There are several answers to your question. If you own an amp that is NOT an integrated amp, then you will need a control unit ( preamp) to drive the amp. Integrated amps are integrated because they include the amp and the preamp in one chassis.
If you are asking me why you need a "tube" preamp vs a "ss" preamp, then the answer is you don't need a tube preamp, you can certainly use a "ss" preamp.
I happen to prefer tube preamps to ss preamps, but that is a personal thing and may not apply to you. In fact, if I were you, I would seek out a tube preamp and go with a ss amp. The Concertino's do very well with tubes somewhere in the system, in the preamp section, IMO you will get the sound you are looking for and not have the heat and other nasties that a tube amp can bring to the table.

Daveyf, why is tube preamp necessary when there is tube amp?

IMO, a tube amp with a tube preamp would be my suggestion with the Concertino's.
Depending on budget, a used ARC amp/preamp or the ARC tube integrated...the ARC VSi60.

I have used pathos integrateds with the sonus faber Concertos and now the Cremora M's. They work very well together. You might want to give them a listen if you can. Both products are made in Italy.