Tubes Through Solid State

Each piece of gear in your system contributes to the sound output in a different (but equally important) way. You choose your amp to best match your speakers, or so the theory goes. With most amps, you can be more flexible with regards to preamp choices.

For many years I was running Apogee planar or hybrid ribbon speakers, so I used high-power SS amps and a tube preamp. I enjoyed those systems a lot. Later and with different speakers I paired a CJ tube amp with a CJ SS pre. I also enjoyed that system. For the last year or so I have been using an all-tube SET integrated with horn speakers. And I love this system.

What's the moral of the story? It's all good, and there are no hard and fast rules. If it sounds good to you, it's good.

Dan ed the combination of tubes and ss can be very satisfying so not sure what you mean about a temporary fix. And Br3098 concerning your last comment couldn't agree more.

Chuck

I've almost always have had a mix. Mostly its been a tube pre and a SS amp because powerful tube amps tend to been more costly then there SS counterparts. It gives a nice touch of tube magic with the ability to drive a load well.

My current setup is just the opposite; tube amps, Rogue M180s, (a unbelievably great piece of gear, not particularly flashy but sonically stunning) and a JC2 pre (also unbelievably good!) and the combination is really amazing. It's giving me more tube goodness then any tube pre/SS amp combination that I have had. It also doesn't hurt that my cdp has a tube output stage,something I have never liked until I heard the Ayon.

Having tubes in your system allows for tube rolling which I love to do. It gives you the ability to change/improve your system at what is usually a small cost, not always, compared to a new piece of gear.

What you have to be aware of is the actual (can differ from published spec) output impedance of the preamp especially when it's tube and input impedance of the amp that you are planning to pair together. Tube preamps can have a high output impedance at the frequency extremes or across the board which can cause either the low bass or highend to be rolled off if paired with a amp that have a low input impedance. Usually a manufacture will give a spec at 1k but not tell you that at 20Hz the output impedance is 10x what it is at 1k. The typical rule of thumb is you want the input impedance of the amp to be at least 10x that of the output impedance of the pre but personally I look for a preamp that is less then 250 and an amp that is greater then 30,000.

Chris
Tel Wire

I liked tubes for the pre-amp, especially with edgy 16 Bit digital. I find no use for them with analog. I replaced my old Cary SLP-94 tubed with NOS Telefunken's with a vintage Mark Levninson 380S Solid State pre. It kills the tube pre-amp I had, has a remote and is much quieter than tube counterparts, not to mention better bass grip and no care and feeding maintenence.

Czbbcl, I didn't say it can't sound good. Not sure why a different opinion threatens your own. I've done the tube/ss mix. IME people do this because it is the equipment they have, the speakers they are using are inefficient so they need the control of a SS amp, and so on. To my listening preferences, either all SS or all tubes sounds better than mixing.