SS vs Tube Preamps


I am a total novice when it comes to tubes. Does it ever make sense to use a SS pre-amp with a tube amp or should one always use a tube pre-amp with a tube amp?
gsm18439
My experience matched Nsgarch's. I would only add that a possibility at the power end of things might be a hybrid. There are a few, including AVA (which I use). Depending on the rest of your system the right hybrid may provide the best of what tubes and SS can both offer to drive a speaker.
I'm of the school of thought that tubes sound the best when used at the source, or as close to the source as possible.

I've tried tubes down stream in the chain, preamps etc, and IMHO thought they sounded far superior at the source.
1st, it is definitely not true that tubes "always" hiss or are noisy in other ways. Completely untrue. It IS true that it is easier/cheaper to make a quiet SS preamp than a tubes one. However, my new Supratek unit is absolutely dead silent and so are many other good ones. Battery-powered tubed units from Dodd & Welborne may be the quietest linestages, period (I'm not sure, but maybe).

2nd, tubes used "at the source" are *usually* nothing but an buffer stage. IOW, the tubes are doing but impedance-matching and are, in my view at least, theoretically redundant. And, other than a slight "softening", sonic effects seem to be rather restrained.

3rd, why must the myths of "bad" tube bass persist? It's always a matter of the speaker interface. Tubes, push-pull or single-ended, with the right speakers (and this doesn't mean just highly-sensitive speakers) can produce the best bass you'll ever hear. Nothing at all inherent to the topology that prevents that. The highest damping factor simply isn't always best - over-damping that truncates decay is not a good thing unless your definition of good is the hardest bass, not the most musically truthful bass. I've heard these differences myself on many amp/speaker combos.

Wow, I'm sounding like a tube N*zi, which I'm not - I just hate the perpetuation of these myths.

As for solid-state and tubed preamps "theoretically" sounding the same, that's a non-statement if I've ever heard one.
Paulfolbrect

My preamp is made specifically for my amps. With the stock tube, the bass output (especially the lowest registers) is less than it was with either of my two SS peramps. Assuming the manufacturer did his homework, why less bass? Could it be the type of tubes (JJ Tesla 12AU7)? I would love to experiment with fuller sounding tubes if there is such a thing.
I agree with Paulfolbrect, My tubed preamp (Audioprism Mantissa) and tube amps (Rogue M-120 Magnums) have great bass in my system...the Rogue amps replaced a Krell Kav-500 a little over a year ago, bass is at least on par with the "little" Krell.

The Rogue amps aren't the bass master that my Krell Ksa-250 is, but why should they be?...120 watts VS. 500 watts.

BTW....no hiss, or noise at all

Dave