The end of an affair?

Well, it seems that after 2 years of tubbing it, I've decided to try a solid state pre amp once again. I have to admit, although we've had many of good times(my 2 tubed pre amps and me) I felt the relationships starting to get boring and too comfortable, especially with the last one. I first switched from SS to tube 2 1/2 years ago at the urging of many people, some that I still speak to on this site. Some of you used to say "hey once you go with tubes boy you'll never go back to SS again". I took their adivce and here's where my journey begins. I remember the first tube girlfriend I had. Yeah her name was Rogue. Rouge 66 to be exact. She graced my rack looking all silver and shiny and black and was my first mixed relationship as far as mating tube gear with my solid state gear goes and was really the talk of the house for a while. Unfortunately, I felt that there was something missing. Something I couldn't put my hands on especially while I was being seduced by her lovely midrange and sweet warm tonal presentation. My friends said that I was crazy when I let her go and despite their pleads I did. I moved on to a more neutral partner although she was still tubed, she didn't lay on the syrup as much as Rogue did. Her name was Line 1 from the Sonic Frontier klan. I met her during an Audio convention a couple of years back and her unassuming style and easy going nature made it easy to like her enough to take her home. Once again, everything was fine but something was still missing. She was indeed a very neutral partner and really had no overbearing signature on anything I involved her in. I would ask her do you like Jazz? She would reply "sure, whatever you like". How about some lite classical my dear? Her reply was "if your in the mood so am I". I knew she was a nice lady at heart and was only trying to make our situation work but it was really starting to get on my nerves. Fortunately, I was spared the painful task of breaking up with this model because although she was calm by nature she blue a tube when she saw me eyeing a Pass Alph in a hi end audio store window. That's all she needed to see and insisted that I trade her in and end our relationship on the spot. I'm sure you all would agree that in most cases, breaking up is hard to do but in some cases it's really for the best. Now I find myself wandering the city, checking out all of the Hi-Fi stores and internet chats looking for a new solid state pre amp to date and who knows, maybe hold on to it for a while. However, until then the search will continue....

Pre-less in New York