What qualities stand out in really good solid state preamps?

@hilde45 Have you ever considered a hybrid preamp? I just bought a PS Audio BHK Signature preamp and it has a couple of 12au7’s for the input and mosfet’s for the output. Only had it a couple of days, but I am really enjoying it so far.

It’s kind of interesting that Paul of PS Audio was dead set against tubes for a long time.We are talking about someone who led the charge for solid state for decades.

Now the story about how the late Bascom H. King (BHK) finally talked Paul into using "TUBES" on the input stage of his amplifiers, and then TUBES in his BHK preamplifier. Why Paul says, "because it sounds better". Now he agrees.

All tube or hybrid with tube in the preamp, how PS Audio -or how Linear Tube Audio does it is fun to explore and test out. Finding a suitable (new era) solid state preamp that sounds "natural", and does not break the bank, is fun and time consuming research project. Best of luck to all here in that hunt, enjoy! :)

@elliottbnewcombjr After reading your two posts I do not see any mention of sonic metrics. Your comment, "change nothing audibly" is all I see. After all your years in the hobby, you never compared one SS preamp to another and made any notes (even mental) about the differences between them? (Such as the ones listed by @audphile1 ) That surprises me based on your other posts. Then again, maybe you are just being transparent about the fact that, for you, there’s nothing to be noticed.

I’m not asking for buying advice in my OP, but thank you for your thoughts.

Inexpensive and interesting...

https://www.akitika.com/PR102.html

DeKay

"But as was said above, sometimes it’s nice to hear what the rest of the chain is doing, minus the preamp."

Have you ever considered a passive preamp?

@hilde45 

Having long wanting to do comparison of top notch solid state pre to my Coincident Statement (MkII upgrade, along with some of my own mods) I recently purchased Pass XP22. I had a chance to extensively compare the two, and experimented with various platforms, footers, power cords, IC's, in other words voiced Pass for best performance with my setup.

So, my final analysis after 3 months comparison. The only two area in which the Pass excelled over Coincident was slightly more extension on top and occasionally I had the sense of slightly more details at certain frequencies, such as words being more easily discernible on some recordings, this not consistent? In spite of this I never thought the Pass to be more resolving or having a lower noise floor. And the easily heard superior transparency of the Coincident trumped whatever advantage Pass may have had there. Its like information vs sense of real live performers in room. As others have mentioned tube vs ss sound staging and imaging also differ, Coincident had more air around performers, this along with precise image placement, Pass did this very well, just sharper outlines around performers. They were aprox. equal in sound stage  and image size, both first rate. I actually preferred the bass from Coincident, more tuneful while remaining articulate, bass was perhaps the most problematic issue I had with Pass, really had to experiment with platforms, footers and power cords to approach bass performance of Coincident. One note or sense of thudding, inarticulate bass was there with certain setups, have to say I brought this under control with correct setup, still never quite on par with Coincident. As for tonality, timbre, Pass really close to replicating Coincident in ability to humanize recordings, I can't imagine any SS doing this better than the Pass. I believe this has long been one of the aspects of Pass equipment that people rave about, I concur.

All in all, at the end I was quite taken by the Pass, in the context of a SS unit. I've not had much success with SS since getting into SET amps and pre's. For me the minimalist approach of small parts count, boutique parts voiced for my particular setup,  and point to point wiring provide a transparency or performers in room sensation I can't get with either push pull tube or SS amps and pre's.

In presentation, Pass took me to recording venue, Coincident brings performers into my room. Again, I'd say this more SET vs SS in my particular setup vs. tubes vs SS in general. Based on my recollection of past non SET tube pre's I've owned the Pass outperformed them in probably every parameter other than 3D imaging, sense of air around individual images that tubes in general do so well.

Pass also excelled in build quality, massive and solid, well organized circuit boards, soldering top notch, I'd expect great reliability. While this may sound like faint praise, I'd evaluate the Pass as really top notch SS pre, I could see it being preferable to tube pre's in some systems.