Id you send out say Denon or Sony to get modded you can have some fun tube rolling but when it comes down to it having tubes as a buffer which introduces lower order harmonic distortion (the kind we like as opposed top upper harmonic distortion which is,well, distortion) in my mind is best left to a tube pre or amp.If one combos is most poular it is tube pre's with SS amps because you get warm euphonics ,bloom, etc of tubes but still your output has control of SS i.e.no rolled off highs or weak bass which CAN be base with some tube designs be they pre or amp but don't have to be.Recently solid state sounds more like tubes and tubes sound like SS.In a hybrid amp tubes are used to change voltage where they add chromatics and some designers say this what they do best but output is handled by SS usually Mosfet designs.
All this said you get IMHO better qualities of tubes in pre or if you really dig tubes,find the right amp or integrated go with tubes entirely as opposed to just adding a filter.Muical Fidelity sold more of it's little XV3(?)tube buffer boxes than any other item it ever made so there's lot's of folks out there who have solid state and want a touch of sweetnes.But generally speaking you'll get more and btter sound out of a glass pre and the most from a glass(tube) amp then you will than just having it as a ad on filter which is waht essentially you get strapping tubes onto a CD players output stage.Big in the aftermarket mod world but if you look at companies that produce both tubes and solid state their CD's are usually sans tube output which must sayt something.The very best CD players do not have tuber oputputs.On other hand you might like it and haved fun.I'd just rather it be part of circut design of my pre,amp,or intergrated.
Chaz
rtapping some tubes
All this said you get IMHO better qualities of tubes in pre or if you really dig tubes,find the right amp or integrated go with tubes entirely as opposed to just adding a filter.Muical Fidelity sold more of it's little XV3(?)tube buffer boxes than any other item it ever made so there's lot's of folks out there who have solid state and want a touch of sweetnes.But generally speaking you'll get more and btter sound out of a glass pre and the most from a glass(tube) amp then you will than just having it as a ad on filter which is waht essentially you get strapping tubes onto a CD players output stage.Big in the aftermarket mod world but if you look at companies that produce both tubes and solid state their CD's are usually sans tube output which must sayt something.The very best CD players do not have tuber oputputs.On other hand you might like it and haved fun.I'd just rather it be part of circut design of my pre,amp,or intergrated.
Chaz
rtapping some tubes