Tube Preamp --> Solid State Amp

@chocaholic 

First, I must correct that my amp is an F8, not F7. Rated 15 dB gain. My Focals are the 906 Arias, rated 89.5 dB sensitivity.
 
No problem with volume. My ears are 8 feet from the speakers. They never sound as though they have not received the power they needed for a passage.

Most integrated amps will let you use the preamp feature as a separate, but not the amplifier feature. For instance, my Hegel integrated always has the preamp in the circuit, even with the HT bypass on.

All the best.

I have a McIntosh c2300 mated with an MC500, my digital is via a d150 thru the c2300. I couldn’t be more happier. It’s the best of both worlds, smooth midrange from the tubes and the slam of bass when needed from the ss amp. I have very efficient Tannoy Churchill’s so that’s part of the equation.  I highly recommend going this route. Good luck. Oh use good tubes. I use medical grade Amprex. 

@charles7 As a fellow Aria owner (936), your end-game config caught my eye. I believe your FW-7 is a 25 watt SS amp, give or take. I’ve always been concerned about pairing my 936’s with an amp that can handle their minimum 2.7 ohm impedance…and I love tubes. I’m powering them with a PrimaLuna Dialogue HP Integrated with 8 KT150’s for output tubes (about 93 wpc) which drives them effortlessly. In fact, I’ve never heard better (in my home). 
 

It seems perhaps I’m overly concerned or that the Arias (at 92 db sensitivity) do not present the challenge I thought they did. Thoughts?

I was using Primaluna EVO 400 preamp with Pass XA30.5, to drive Focal 1028be and to "tame" that spicy beryllium top. Was quite happy with the combination. Before Pass I had Hypex NC500 based power amp, which was also good, dynamic, but maybe a bit too dry. 

Biggest problems i found were: preamp with low enough output impendence, gain will be too high (I have to use Rothwell XLR attenuators), matching speakers to pre/power combination. What worked well with Focals, maybe its not the best with some other brand (evaluating Q Acoustics Concept 500 and Scansonic mb2.5b now). 
So, in short, can result with really good sound but requires much more effort (read: money to buy/sell different amps/preamps:)

I’m using a McIntosh C2700 tube preamp with a MC462 solid-state power amp. A little bit of tube warmth from the pre without the hassle and cost of having to deal with power tubes. But like one of the previous posters said, I do feel it’s a little soft on the high end at times. But I could probably remedy that by doing some tube rolling. I’m still running the stock Mac tubes.

That's the route I took with the Sopra 3's. First tried them with tube power and the impedance dip was apparent. Switched out to a 600w solid state pair and it livened them right up. I have a much more pedestrian tube pre than a McIntosh, but I'm happy with the tube pre/SS power amp combo. 

I took the easy way out with a McIntosh 352 hybrid integrated amp - tube pre, ss power. I've never been a separates guy and this hybrid is my first foray into anything tubey.

"ghdprentice" said it well while I was typing.  My sentiments exactly, so I'll just echo his post.

Since you have made an investment, I recommend you stop and enjoy what you have puchased. It takes stuff hundreds of hours to break in and sound like they… well, will.

you now have a “reference system”. One you can listen to and understand the sound quality. Typically I will listen for a while and then reposition the speakers to make them sound as good as they can over several months. Then, knowing the sound of your system you are ready to listen to alternative options. 
 

Not all tube stuff is warm and soft and not all so,I’d state is colder and more analytic. So, it is more important to do some auditioning to find a. Sound you are really drawn to.

For me in particular, I finally was able to afford a good quality tube preamp about thirty years ago… I paired it with a solid state amp because my speakers required massive current. But a few years ago I finally could afford a tube amp and finally tried one… wow, never going back… this is a high end tube amp… unreal what it did. Wish I did it much earlier. But this is my journey.

What is important is you identify what you want (go listen to other systems)… then move that way through careful choices.

If presumably you bought the X5 from this same dealer and like it you could always trade it in for the Michi amp and get a tube pre to put in front of it. A much more expensive option of course!

You can run the output from a tube preamp into one of the integrated amp inputs. As noted in a previous post, you don't want a preamp with high gain. In any case, you would experiment with combinations of the two volume controls to find the best sound.

My audiophile quests ended with a Van Alstine Transcendence RB preamp into a FirstWatt F7 power amp, into Focal Aria speakers. Best accuracy plus musicality I ever found.

I had a McIntosh C2600 tube pre and MC302 SS amp and frankly that combination reignited my passion for music listening. 
 

For long time, many have promoted the classic audiophile "hack" to combine tube sound with greater power & slam via a tube preamp paired to SS power amp. However, there are caveats to this approach!

• Impedance mismatch is much more likely here than with the reverse (SS pre into tube power). Some tube preamps will start to perform very poorly into tough loads.
• Tube preamps can sometimes have too much gain, or otherwise prove problematic for noise & microphonics (usually because of the high gain)
• Tube preamp designs often choose poor tubes for the job - e.g. 12AX7, 12AU7 - ugh.
• If you have a capacitor coupled tube pre into a DC coupled SS amp, and the caps fail or start to leak DC, it can damage your speakers. With a tube amp, the output transformers can provide good protection to you speakers.
• I feel you really get more of the "tube" sound from a power amp than preamp.

However, if you select carefully - yes a tube pre and SS power can give very good results indeed! But really the primary determinant should be based on the speakers - some prefer either SS amps, or tube amps. Other speakers can thrive with either. Make the amp-speaker determination first, THEN move upstream to preamp choice.

I have personally heard Sopra 3’s sounding great with VAC tube amp & tube preamp btw - nice speakers!

Thanks all--I agree on duplicating the preamp feature of the X5 and will stick with the X5.  

Tube Pre amp with solid state amp is a great combo when your using speakers that require extra power to really open up.

tube pre into a POWER amp (good solution for best of both worlds if components chosen well... employed by many over many years)

not an integrated... that would be duplicative of preamp functions

I think you throwing away money if you use a preamp with an integrated. A preamp with an amp is smart but an integrated is a waste of the preamp in the Michi X5.

I have demoed that Michi X5 with B&W and I thought it was a pretty good integrated. Why not add a tube DAC, tube tuner, etc... if you want to flavor it up on occasion? 

Oh no, maybe it doesn't from what I can tell...  Here is a snippet of the back of the unit and also link to the manual.  Is that your conclusion?  Sorry, I'm not a pro here

It is very common for people to use a tube pre with a solid state amp to get some tube sound into their system.  Does your integrated have inputs that bypass its preamp?