What Solid State PreAmp?

IMO, to dismiss tube preamps is a mistake.With a tube pre you can roll tubes and play with the sound.Heat is never an issue and tube life on preamps is non even in play as they last for years..I personally like running a SS amp with a tube pre...

Missioncoonery, yes I agree, but think about tube rolling a little bit. I've got a little single-ended, Class A headphone amp by Woo Audio. It's wonderful, BUT I can change it dramatically by simply changing the recifier tube, replacing my $10 Russion tube with a 1950s metal base Holland GZ34tube that ranges in cost between $300 and $700, IF you can find it.

The improvement is HUGE in my headphone amp example and it's still not as good as my Rowland SS. I don't see the "advantage" of tube rolling. You've got a high likelyhood of worsening your tone, not improving it. Why would you want to introduce such a big variable into your system??

It's one thing to roll tubes on my guitar amp, where the idea IS to color the sound, but on my high fidelity two-channel system I only want tubes that are "accurate" and "transparent", yet such a thing is hard to define, much less find.

Dave

I now run all tube amplification (linestage, phono and amp), but I do own a couple of solid state linestages (Placette Active and Levinson No. 32). For the money, the Placette Active is a very good linestage -- dynamic, open and detailed, and it projects a very large and realistic sounding soundstage (for a solid state unit). The Levinson is more "refined" sounding (less artificial "edginess"), but is a touch dull and unexciting compared to the Placette.

I have also heard systems with Ayre preamps that sound quite good. I like the clean, "fast" and nimble sound that Ayre electronics manage to produce while being substantially free of the artificial edge to the initial attack of notes that makes a lot of solid state gear sound a bit mechanical and artificial to me.

Mikeaudio, I know that based on your thread you are looking for a SS preamp rather a tube unit.
However I would like to suggest a tube preamp that in my opinion will not benefit from tube rolling. That preamp is the Herron Audio VTSP-3. Like Stringreen , I am also a musician, violinist by training and have played for years, and this preamp is the best at rendering musical satisfaction that I have used. It gets all aspects right in MHO. You should check it out, I do not think tah you will be dis-satisfied.

Dave,

Your Woo unit is a nice lil headphone amp but it is NOWHERE NOWHERE NEAR even a "good" tube pre. I had one too and used it as a linestage occasionally so I know.

Defining/deciding what tubes are "accurate" is no different than answering the same question for transistors, op-amps, resistors, capacitors, etc.