TUBE or SS?

Hello Craig and thank you for your response. It's a pleasure to be able to exchange our thought's in this hobby. For me and I'm sure for you and others it's more than just a hobby. It's for the love and joy of music that enriches or life in such a profound way. It is essential to mate the right tube amp and speaker. If there's a synergy I'm sure you will hear the timing of pace and rhythm that you desire along with the beauty of the timbre of tone that for me is void to a degree in every SS amp I've every heard. Craig, as you may recall I recently purchased a pair of Eidolons. A friend of mine who is also an audiophile and pianist came by to check them out. I was playing them with my BAT mono VK60's, it was a great listening session that went into the late late evening. The sound was "magical" and had a presence that was uncanny. At the end of the session we had switched amps to the latest version of the Bryston 4b that I had borrowed from another friend so I could start the lengthy break-in of the speakers. In seconds of playing the system with the Bryston my friend and I looked at each other in utter disappointment. The sound had completly lost its realism. Where was the texture of tone and the sound of the space? There was space but it did'nt have sound, that sound of air. The images lost timbre making them sound artificial. The "magic" was gone! Please don't take this as a bashing of the Bryston, I'm sure it's a good solid-state amp at its price point. I've had the Bat amps for almost 2 years now and over time I guess I took their qualities for granted, and let me tell you boy was this ever a smack in the face. (or ears) To Craig and others do yourself a favor and audition a high quality tube amp in your system and make sure it can drive your speakers properly. I don't think you'll be going back to SS anytime soon. Thanks for hearing me out. Sincerly, Tom

david99, thanks for your comments. i can *assure* you it's the rogue 99 preamp that made the bass go away - it was all there before, & the preamp is the only thing that's changed. since my last post, however, several folks have said that this will improve w/burn-in - we'll see. i hope so, cuz the rest of the stuff this pre does is *very* nice...

I too have had good results by using a tubed pre and a solid state amp,if used with the right cables! The S.F.Line2 sounds very good with my Krell KSA-150 With the right cables between them but can sound harsh with the wrong ones in there. As someone mentioned earlier the speakers may dictate what combo you may wish to go for.....If you have a speaker that you already like look at it's requirements and work backwards from there.

I too have had good results by using a tubed pre and a solid state amp,if used with the right cables! The S.F.Line2 sounds very good with my Krell KSA-150 With the right cables between them but can sound harsh with the wrong ones in there. As someone mentioned earlier the speakers may dictate what combo you may wish to go for.....If you have a speaker that you already like look at it's requirements and work backwards from there.

I've been both ways. Tube on pre, tubes on amp, both and none. My favorite is tube pre and ss for exactly the same reasons everyone has mentioned above. When you get too many tubes in the system, however I find a loss of detail and a too laid back sound. Besides then when one tube goes bad you have to sort through ten or fifteen tubes to find I've not heard some of these new "super" tube amps like the problem tube. And it get's expensive to boot. However, Manley or Wolcott. So my advice would be if you are going on less than 5K budget, keep it cheap all around and do tubes on the pre and ss on amp.