High End Tube Gear Transition to High End SS

I agree, I would not touch the MFA gear it is classic tube gear and the preamp was especially very highly acclaimed. What kind of output tubes do the mono amps have? I am not as familiar with them, but remember reading incredible things about your preamp. Would love to see pictures of your system and room when you have an opportunity.

Lou-setriodes wrote:
"I agree, I would not touch the MFA gear it is classic tube gear and the preamp was especially very highly acclaimed. What kind of output tubes do the mono amps have? I am not as familiar with them, but remember reading incredible things about your preamp. Would love to see pictures of your system and room when you have an opportunity"

Hi Lou:
I appreciate your comments. The term "habitual changer" is now in my lexicon! :) I am using 4 matched Genalex Gold Lion KT-88's in each amp. They are a substantial improvement over the old 6550's. I am not much of a tube roller but I also have a set of almost new matched Ruby KT-88's which I'll try one of these days. Scott Frankland did a fantastic upgrade on the Lumi Preamp- taking it as far as he could. Even though it sounded darn good prior to his work, I was astonished at how much better it sounded after the upgrades. The amps were also noticeably improved but not quite as dramatically as the Lumi.

This thread has helped me to understand that change may not always for the better. :)

I'll see about doing a snapshot or two of the system.

Regardless of amplification technology used, a focus on coherency in the sound can yield great results for minimal cost.

Ironically, often the less complex gear tends to be the most coherent sounding. ICs and speaker designs, especially in regards to crossover and baffle geometry, are two areas of focus that can yield big dividends and work well with any kind of amplification if matched well to the speakers.

SPeaker wires used may also yield dividends in regards to coherency but I have not dabbled much there to-date.

Specific products I have heard that are particularly coherent:

DNM Reson ICS due to simple cost effective minimalist design I believe

OHM Walsh and Triangle speakers due to use of wide range main drivers and/or simple crossover

Any Walsh design speaker or even more conventional single driver full/wide range speakers should also share similar traits regarding coherency.

Another 2-way speaker brand I have not heard that I believe to have these traits is Ref 3a. I have also seen some older Meadowlark designs that are said to do well in this regard. Thiel perhaps as well.

There is a thread going on about the DEQX digital correction solution that addresses the time coherency issues inherent in many systems. Teh consensus seems to be that this is a real issue in many cases and specialized digital processing to compensate these days is a viable solution.