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Your tube preamp and ss amp thread

Last night I was listening to my tube preamp and my tube mono blocks, noticed an imbalance in the sound, and as usual I traced it to a tube problem in the mono blocks. Luckily, I also own a ss stereo amp as a 'backup'. IME, ss amps tend to be a lot more reliable than tube amps. Nonetheless, I would be interested in how many other folk run a tube preamp and ss amp combo, and if so, what are your choices.
daveyf

Showing 1 response by bfoura

bfoura
88 posts
 
Over the past year, been using a Audible Illusions L3A with a combination of SS amps in this order. 
McIntosh MC152
Rowland Model 12
Pass XA 30.5
and now a Levinson 532H

All combinations sounded good to my ears. I’m interested in going for an even blacker background which I think there could be limits with a tube preamp. Kind of a trade off between detail with a SS preamp or a musical tube preamp presentation. I’ve read reviews that the AI L3B provides that blacker background but that’s going to cost me another $3k, so I might change out tubes on the L3A for now to hear what happens. 
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