TUBE or SS?

tube pre-amp plus solid-state amp? i was also hoping that would be the ticket. years ago, i auditioned an ar sp9-mkll - it was so dull & slow, i passed. i really *wanted* to like it - it was so cool-looking! ;~) this was w/an adcom 555 amp & thiel 3.5's, both known for their tendencies to be bright, so ya'd think the ar would have balanced it - no such luck. i can't comment about any other ar stuff, or any other tube preamps - *except* the brand-gnu rogue audio 99, deluxe *magnum* version, that i just got this past thursday nite. well, it's a *lot* better than that sp9 was - great soundstage depth, airy highs, * very* detailed - from the midrange on up. the bass, however, is totally awol, and what little there is, it's very inarticulate. perhaps this will improve when it's broken-in? i don't think so - i've never heard of this aspect of a pre-amp changing much during break-in. and, i'm not talking about head-banger-electronic-type bass, either. listen to the bass on patricia barbour's *inchworm* & *ode to billie joe* on her "cafe blue" album - the bass was *fantastic* w/my linn kairn preamp. in all fairness, tho, my system's lo-end is a pair of bridged adcom gfa555's driving a pair of vmps larger subs, x'd over at 60hz. monitors are meret re's, bi-amped w/a pair of electtrocompaniet amps. maybe other less full-range systems wouldn't even be aware of this preamp's bass deficiencies, but for me, it's a sho-stopper. regretably, this is going up for sale, less than a week old... see audiogon classifieds for specifics.

Tubes all the way.Go for Rogue M-120 Monoblocks.2695.00 Rogue 66 Preamp 1295.00.Anthem CD-1 player 1500.00.Coincident Super Eclipse 5400.00 + Coincident Interconnects and speaker cable.1000.00.Its a little more but you should be able to get better than list retail on these items.I have heard 20k rigs that dont sound as good.

Standard marketing answer? It depends! Some things to keep in mind though is that if your speakers need a lot of current to sound their best; solid state gets the job done much better on a per dollar basis. If your speakers are really efficient and naturally tight on the bottom-end then tubes can reward with more openess and warmth in the mid-range. Can you have your cake-and-eat-to? Yes, but generally at a price point beyond where most accomodating spouses will go. I have happily lived with the tube preamp/ ss poweramps (vertically bi-amped) for several years and can vouch for this being a fairly happy compromise.

I think the matching of amp and preamp is emphasizing the wrong pairing. I find that matchning the amp with the speakers is more important. Discounting magic solutions like Krell's CAST, the amp preamp interface is not full of hidden problems. The speaker however can be a benign or devil load for an amp. I own Thiel 3.6s and was forced to a Krell KSA-200S because the speakers wanted lots of current. I tame this bright combo with a SF Line-3. Its a wonderful combination but I had to start with speakers and work backwards.

Here is the answer, for "both world's": Martin Logan SL-3, CD,Wadia 860X (used),AMP. VTL MB-450 sig. monoblocks (used) Pre-amp Z-system RPD-1 REF. (used)and some Cardas "neutral" for cables. I don't think anything would come close at this price range (probably more than10K, however you can substitute cd player for lower model) or at any price range PERIOD!!!