Which Pre-Amp Pass Labs or Audio Research

Thanks Guys, I`ve been into tubes since the 70`s and have been thinking about change but could never get the information you wonderful audio enthusiastic enthusiast have supplied me with. I have one questioned the preamps before the xp10-20-30 the X2.0 its a possibility I can get it for a pretty fair price should I or go with one of the newer preamps? Best regards, 813Sheridan

Sunfentanil, as I stated I`ve been into tubes since the 70`s Audio Research sp3 my first High end tube preamp Its been AR every since. After so many hours tubes go bad tube rolling isn`t cheap; there will be know need to worry about this problem going transistor. The Ref5 I adored but my buget would not allow me to hear the maximum performance of the Ref5 by that I mean I just could`nt see my self upgrading to a great 2,000 cart. 3k speaker cables may be better speakers than my 3.6 Maggies heaven only knows what else, are you feeling me?

Barrysandy, I think I`ll have a much better match pass to pass. I also want to try S/S for a while after a few years or thousands of hours down the road its time to change tubes, don`t have to worry about that with S/S. My taste in music is classical,Jazz,blues, gospell

Thanks Barrysandy, I replaced the sovtek 6922 tubes for the mitsushita`s the change in sonics over the sovtek 6922 well worth it. I think that is as far as I want to go with the LS22 I`m thing about the resale on a modded preamp.