Tube pre sspwramp vs sspre tubepwr

I think most people like to have at least some tubes in their system. I prefer all tubes. Although I have tried both ways you are asking about, if you have to have anything solid state, I have found a SS preamp with tube amps was preferreable over the reverse. Hope this does not start some sort of huge war.

Jtinn: I had good luck with this combo as well. This was older gear and the SS preamp introduced less noise to the tube amp than the tube preamp did. It would player louder and cleaner.

the 2 previous posts are correct,tubed pre with a SS amp is the way to go in my opinion.

I think you'll find as many people in one camp as the other. My experience has been that the "realness" (for lack of a better word) I find characteristic of tube equipment seems to come more from the amps than from anything further up the chain. However, I have heard some wonderful systems that paired tube preamps/DACs with SS amplifiers (ARC LS-25 + ARC 100.2 comes to mind), so there can be some magic there as well. I think it depends on what you're looking for. Personally, I'm a bit torn between the two. I tend to prefer the sound of tube amps with classical and folk music, but I like the speed and punch of SS for rock and jazz. My tastes mostly lean towards the former, so for me (for the time being) its tubes all around.

I heard this discussed many times over the past few years, and from what I can tell there is no clear answer to which is better. I think it ends up being one of personal taste

Cheers,
Ken

The ARC 100.2 is tube amp.