SS or tube preamp? Which one?

Check out the Soundstage! review by Srajan Ebean on the new Bel Canto SS preamp. The interesting part is that this self-proclaimed tube-o-phile has re-thought using tubes in the preamp stage due to their inherently higher noise level potentially affecting the weak and ultra-vulnerable signal at that stage. This concept seems to make sense and may be something to consider when choosing a preamp. Of course the right thing to do is find top contenders in each format and try them against each other in your system--the answer will likely become very obvious and will be more valuable than any post you'll read here. Best of luck.

Tim

He did say say 80% movies and 20% music, right? Use a SS preamp / processor, man! Turns on immeidately, mulit-channel for easy integration, no worries about ventilation and tube life, fast dynamics for loud passages, better bass, no rolled-off highs, great for explosions and gun fights, etc.

I love my all tube gear for my 100% music setup but I wouldn't try to integrate the tube preamp into my home theatre. For one thing, you don't want to wait 30 minutes for the tubes to "open up" and sound their best. And how about the complications of matching the two "tube channels" with the rest of the channels?

For your 80/20 requirement, to me its a no-brainer. I vote for Solid-State *in this situation*.

I am switching back to an all tube system and only going to use one supplier; Audio Note. I'll start with the speakers and work backwards; currently use an Audio Note p2se amp and am considering acquiring either a Meishu int amp or a M2 preamplifier. None of the SS stuff sounds as good as the properly executed tube equipment IF mated with compatible components (part. speakers).

Carl

I recently became a ss guy and it came in a dream. A voice told me that I had been deluding myself all along. That it was time to wake up to reality and discover what music REALLY sounds like. Mr tubegroover you need to move forward and forget about your love affair with those even order harmonic distortions and come to your senses. The tube mavens have been tricking you and all those other misguided ones all along. It is time to face the music!!

I woke up in a cold sweat, jumped out of bed and ran to my listening room and found to my great relief that it was just that, a dream, or was it? :^)

Moral of the tale, listen with your own ears and make your own decision. No one can tell you on such matters.

I use an Audio Note P2SE for my main speakers and a Parasound hca 1206 for the center/rear speakers. My preamp is a McIntosh C22 and Parasound psp1500; use a passive rca switch box to switch between the two. Home theatre works just fine with the little tube amp. I don't miss any dynamics. All this talk about tubes not working for home theatre is crap. The key is to have a tube amp with a decent transformer that makes real bass. Think Audio Note.

Regards,
Carl