tube pre amp with tube / SS /hybrid power amp ?

It would help us 'Goners trying to advise you if we knew what speakers you were driving.

However, I too would recommend the Blue Circle gear, at least their power amps. I'm running a deHavilland Ultraverve 2 preamp with NOS tubes into a Blue Circle BC-28 tube/SS hybrid power amp. It is a low cost alternative to the all Atma-Sphere system I used to own. While not up to that standard, it does quite well without the heat generation and retubing costs. Very good tonality and clarity, overall a musical sound that can be listened to for extended periods of time without fatigue.

My father has on order a Aesthetix Atlas hybrid amp that we demoed with a Audio Research ref 3 (same pre as he owns) and the match is sonic heaven.atleast ith his Vandersteens.

Chad
If you get the chance, listen to the Sanders ESL amp driving the Vandies. It allowed the Vandies to breathe and a measure of expression which I had never heard before.

My favourite combination of tube/SS is the ModWright pre with the Sanders ESL amps. On the ModWright, change the 5687 tube for the Amperex 7119, then listen to music so sweet and natural, it suspends reality.

The dampening factor should be a 10 times factor as a minimum. That is the preamps X 10 (or more) = the amps.

Typically, I have not heard of people adding coupling caps on their own. There are also those that say that the use of coupling capacitors degrades the performance. I can neither agree or disagree with this as I have never had the opportunity to listen to the same components within a system with the caps activated and then with them not activated.

My preamp (Aesthetix Calypso) has output coupling capacitors. My amp (Krell FPB300C) has the ability to activate input coupling capacitors; however, I have never done this due to my preamps configuration (ie. no need to).

There are many very good combinations of tubed preamps with SS power amps, and there are some suggestion above.

However, this does not mean such recommendations are good for you. To get the best feedback, you should consider a couple of items and report on these to get better feedback for your goals. Such as:

Do you already have speakers you want to keep for the long term? If so, what are they? This will say a lot about what other equipment is most apt to play well.
What sources (digital or analog) you prefer and run?
What are your performance objectives (other than everything), what are the 2-3 most important characteristics to you?
Share some info, including budget (perhaps you don't need to hear about the best $12,000 combo if your budget is $3,000 for example). New/used?

There are many people that run tubed preamps with SS power amps without any coupling capacitors and some say there is little risk. While I don't dispute that the risk may be low (especially if you are good about watching your tubes), my concern has been once I got to a certain level (ie. budget), I was not willing to risk a large (to me) investment in a power amp by taking this risk.

You can get great sound from moderately prices equipment and don't need to spend tens of thousands to get very rewarding sound. You can also spend tens of thousands and get not very rewarding sound!

05-30-08: Chadnliz
My father has on order a Aesthetix Atlas hybrid amp that we demoed with a Audio Research ref 3 (same pre as he owns) and the match is sonic heaven.atleast ith his Vandersteens.

Hey Chad, did you get a chance to compare the Aesthetix Atlas with the ARC HD-220 in the same system? I'm just curious as these two amps would seem to make natural competitors. I would think the ARC HD-220 would mate better with the ARC Ref 3, but this may not be so.

Cheers,
John