Which would you choose for good sounding tube preamp for an audiophile new to tubes.


I need your help guys. I would like to add a tube preamp to pair with my reference 200.2 B&K amplifier. My speakers are large ADS L1590 towers ( 90 DB efficiency rating). They were a flagship back in the day. I have had them restored by an ads tech. I am l looking at  a QUICKSILVER LINESTAGE LS PREAMPLIFIER, VTL 5.5 preamplifier, and a Sonic Frontiers SFL-1. All are currently used and on audiomart or audiogon. The Sonic Frontiers is for sale on hi-fi heaven. I purchased from them before and they check out the equipment that is preowned. My system is a little bright and dynamic sounding using the sonata B&K preamp. (There best at the time). I am looking for a little warmth in the sound and no harshness. I want some slam and afraid I will lose it if I go with tubes.  I have had success buying certain units because of the knowledge dispensed through this forum I am a member of Audiogon in good standing. Any help would be great. I appreciate the feedback. 

128x128arichison

I would look for an Audio Research LS17 SE.  $1500 will likely never get one but maybe under $2000.  That would be a nice intro to ARC that could keep you going for many years.  

The Bottlehead Moreplay kit is $439.  Sound is fantastic with the stock tubes but if you add good NOS 6V6 tubes and upgrade the coupling capacitors it gets even better.  I mostly can't tell it apart from my PS Audio BHK preamp.  I have also used the Freya, Cary SLP-03, Cary SLP-70, and the SP14 which is the basis for the Don Sachs preamp.  I think the Moreplay is better than all of those.  Biggest negative is a relatively high output impedance.  Your B&K's impedance is 33K so about a 10x ratio which is fine but not ideal.

As I previously stated, of those you mentioned I would choose the Quicksilver. 

As an alternative you might contact Aric Audio. See his web site. He makes a great preamp at several price points. Much info by owners on this forum, I being one.