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TUBE....Starting with Power or Preamp ?

I've been looking at this forum and found "MANY" loves tube gears a lot. It makes me want to enter the "TUBE" arena but I'm not sure which one to start with between Poweramp or Preamp. Could anybody have an experience answer my question below? If I have only one tube equipment to start,.....

1. What's the sound would be using SS Preamp + Tube amp?
2. What's the sound would be using Tube Preamp + SS amp?
3. Which way is a better approach?
4. Which Tube Poweramp or Tube Preamp is great for around $500-$800 used?

My music preferences is Acoustic Jazz with lots of details and some drums + percussions. I like the music that is sweet, very involving and real. Any suggestions would be very appreciated?

Supakit S.
supakit
drrasta
224 posts
 
Check out Rogue Audio for tubes: Tempest is a new integrated and occasionally comes up used for about $1500. Equivalent separates are Pre 66 and Amp 88 models which go for about your price range used. The Rogue 88 is dynamic, detailed with excellent bass for tubes. Great for the $$.
joe_b
421 posts
 
In order to stay happily married, I have to hide most of my gear in a large cabinet. My tube preamp was slowly cooking itself to death in there so I sold it and got a Classe preamp, which I use with Quicksilver Monoblocks (they hide behind my speakers). The Quickies are little loose on the bottom and the Classe tightens them up a bit. If you get a tube amp you should plan on changing your speaker cables to something more revealing.
If you want to try a tube preamp, I recommend trying an Audible Illusions. It's what I would have bought if not for the cabinet constraint.
diver
29 posts
 
Hi Supakit,
a new from Italy; I suggest you for Jazz Music, to change before your pre-amp; the best choice is ARC SP 10 MkII, but is more expensive than 600-800 USD (sale your car and buy it!). For power-amps is different; it largely depend from the kind of speakers that you like, if these work in low impedance I suggest KRELL or similar; if work in normal impedance, you can try tube power amps (if you have high sensitivity speakers buy a good 7-8 Watts mono-triode tubes, if not a more powered amp, but always acording with speakers).
And remember that the final test is to listen in your room with your ears!
From Italy. Diver.
sedond
1,387 posts
 
hi supakit,

while either way can work, at yer budget, i'd suggest going w/the tubed preamp. imo, ewe really have to spend big bucks on a tubed amp to get it *all* - the joy of toobs, w/o giving up what solid-state amps do so well. i don't tink this is the case w/pre's - in fact i tink the opposite is true - i tink ya gotta spend big bucks on a solid-state pre to get it *all* - the goodness of solid-state w/o giving up the joy of what toobs do so well! :>)

i *highly* recommend a melos sha gold reference or sha-maestro (their last iteration of this pre). it's in yer price-range, & it's a great-sounding pre - wonderful toob sound that gives up *nothing* to solid-state pre's. in my toob-pre search, i considered the audible illusions, & actually owned a magnum-version of the rogue 99, and the cary slp98 before ending up w/the melos music-director (the top-model melos). i ended-up trying the melos because of the sha-gold i'd heard a few years back. in my search, even a couple dealers that carried the audible illusions, rogue & cary, said the melos was better if i could find one...

good luck, doug s.

eggpowder
22 posts
 
Start with tube preamp! Many tube power amps don't perform best with SS preamps due to impedance matching. Try EAR 834L or Joule Electra LA-100MKII ( $1050 in audiogon now ). For less money and good result, try counterpoint 5.1 or foreplay ( visit audio asylum bottlehead forum ) and tweak the unit yourself. After you get the preamp get some NOS tubes for the unit.
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