Cary SLP-05 Vs High End SS or Tube Preamp's

09-10-08: Mechans
I am somewhat confused by this second post of late which refers to impedance matching in a preamp. I would think that all preamps would have a fairly standard range for resistance in and the ability to cope with an easy after-load. What am I not understanding.

John Atkinson does a good job of explaining in his measurements section, as in the Cary SLP-05 review.

Essentially, the take-away is:

The SLP 05's output impedance is specified as a usefully low 400 ohms. However, I got significantly higher values for the unbalanced output of 1500–1600 ohms in the midrange and treble, rising to 3400 ohms at 20Hz, with similar if slightly lower figures for the balanced output. The Cary preamp needs to be used with power amplifiers having input impedances of 10k ohms or greater if the bass is not to sound a little lean.

Atkinson almost always includes a statement similar to the last sentence. The 10K ohms figure will vary depending on the preamp being measured. For example, in his measurements of the ARC Reference 3 preamp, he states a recommended amplifier input impedance of 20k ohms or higher.

Systems that sound bright could sound that way because of a preamp/amp mismatch that results in lean bass.

I have heard many, many, many preamps in my 30 years of audio 'nutzville'. FWIW, I have never heard any SS preamp that could contend musically with a tube preamp. I've heard many top SS contenders from Krell, ML, Coda, Threshold, etc. None could beat even less expensive tube preamp models from Cary, VAC, BAT, ARC, etc.

The bottom line is that tubes just sound more like music......at least to my ears.

Cheers,
John

Even though I agree with Thorman on the solid state and tube converging when the price goes up statement, but I agree with John more on tube still create a more life like imaging, texture, and ambient than solid state. This also applies to power amp unfortunately.

I'm in Johns camp,I've owned many pre amps over the years and I have yet to hear a solid state pre amp that compares to the musicality provided by tubes.As usual Tvad is on point,the key is correct matching between amp and pre amp.