Class D amp with Tube Preamp Combo?

"Addressing the vibration and the AC should be seriously considered before applying the tube preamp band aid"

Vicdamone i concur big time with your statement above. I'm not using sandbags but i am addressing vibrations also as well as AC and the improvements are very audible for sure.

Any one who bashes any gear is a fool. There is enough equipment out there for all to find enjoyment and as we all hear differently who cares what type of gear blows your skirt up. We are all in this for musical enjoyment i suspect and the way you get it done is your musical happiness business. I"ve had some interesting volleys with some bashers in the past dealing with gear. Hell its your ears and money listen to what pleases you.

Stltrains, Hear, hear and nice looking system you have.

After my earlier concern expressed in the earlier post on 26/7/08 , I continue to log long hours with Supratek Chenin tube pre + Bel Canto Ref 1000 combintion. After 2 weeks,the ICE power amp sound has changed quite a lot.
I was initially told they've about 200 hours on them but the seller later said they would be lucky to have 50 hours playing time before i got them. Hmmm..
I later emailed Mick Maloney and he clarified that Chenin output impedance is actully 200 ohm , not 600 ohm i stated earlier and with the 20 kohm balance input impedance of the BC Ref 1000 matching should not be an issue.

As for the sound, the veiled, congested and rolled off sound i heard a few weeks ago has definitely disappeared. The top end has more sparkle and instrument separation is better now. These changes are not that subtle to my ears. I could hear some graininess in the HF region from a few recordings again and i certainly hope this won't get more pronouced as i can't stand sibilant sound. It's not all rosy though as another impression i get is the bass is just a bit plodding and PRAT could be better relative to my old amp. Over the two and half week period, i did put my Bryston 4BSST back in 3 times just to compare and confirm my impression.

I think burn in is definitely real with these ICE power amplifier.I was all ready to sell them 2 weeks ago but now i think they could be long term keeper. May be..

Hi Jaspert, there are only 3 things that matter when inserting switching amps in a system: patience, patience, and more patience. Once you have logged a little over 1000 hrs of playing time on them, the BC will probably be starting to give you their best. . . and at that time you'll know if they are truly for you or not. G.

There are a lot of wizened people contributing to this topic. Several are mirroring my experience over the four years I went class D over conventional amps. What I thought was really cool then would be nonsense to my ears now. With the narrowing down the components that do work, and those that don't my sound has taken leaps to ever more accurate fidelity. Like Guidocorona says, Patience is needed.

Oh, on topic, I am using a class A preamp of unearthly quality. The tubes are in the non-oversampling DAC.