amplifiers tube vs. solid state


Hello all,

i have a mark levinson 380s solid state preamp. kef 205 reference floor standing speakers and a meridian g08 player. also a mission 775 turn table for my record collection. 

Im seriously thinking of taking out my existing ARC sd125 solid state and replacing with a tube amplifier.  looking a the ARC reference 110.

Just dont know how a tube amplifier will fit in with my solid state preamp.

Joe

hershey2010

I have done the SS preamp and tube amp thing.  Can be quite good if you find that great pairing. 
 

This is something where in home auditions are a must 

I do a tube preamp w/a SS amp. Luxman CL38Use and a Bryston 3B cube w/Aerial 5T speakers and a JL Audio D-110. 

As @mulveling mentioned… check the input impedance of the existing SS amp, and the output impedance of the candidate tube amp.

I run a tube pre now (one from 98 to 2022, and a different one since last year.)
Sonically they are similar.

I have run them into tube amp(s), Class-AB and Class-D and they all were pretty well behaved.

I encourage you to track down a copy of Roger Sanders white paper - something like tubes vs. solid state. You can find it on the sanders sound systems website in the technical papers section. It's an excellent paper and he makes things very easy to understand.

@hershey2010  I have been wondering the same thing about my system. Currently running both SS pre and amp but was wondering in going with a tube amp. I really like the idea having best of both worlds I would think to start of that route is to go with a tube pre with a SS amp.