Holographic imaging

Atmasphere,

My system is currently highly transparent and holographic, I would say.

But I've thought about trying a tube pre-amp with my SS amp to get more of the sound of tube harmonics going, which I tend to like as well when I hear a good tube-amp'ed system.

Do you think a hybrid approach like this is likely to result in a more compromised, middle of the road sound, or could it add a touch of tube-like harmonics in a manner that benefits without negatively impacting the good things already happening?

Tube power amps will not work well with my Ohm speakers I am convinced due to their low efficiency and somewhat difficult load, so that is not an option for me.

Mapman, my experience has been that anywhere you can involve tubes in audio will help, as long as the tubes are in a competent circuit :)

In my experience, there's very little difference in the holographic abilities of tubes vs. SS. Listen for yourself and decide for yourself without regard to one technology vs. the other. Listen for the overall presentation, with your speakers, preferable in your room. When you find well designed equipment the differences will melt away.

Dave

Guys, for questions and user experiences with the H-Cat line stage I would merely direct you to the h-cat.com website. As Mr. Fiel suggests, I am enthusiastic about the H-Cat sound. I do not sell this equipment, while Mr. Fiel does sell rival equipment, but I have had 47 years of experience with audio equipment. Of course, your experience may differ from mine, but for many around the world have validated my experience with this product.

Ralph,
in reading you post I suspect that I probably have used the expression "bloom" wrongly. I thought bloom would be the air you hear around instruments in real life. Possibly "air" would have been the better word instead of bloom, although the sound blooms, spreads in an aura around the instrument that is played. This I find is most difficult to reproduce. The more transparency you get, where SS exells, the less air seems to be possible around the instruments. Digital, no matter how good it has become,is still disappointing as far as airiness is concerned. Harmonic distortion in tubes can mimic air to a certain degree. The first time I heard this, was with the old Jadis gear. It was pleasant but highly euphonic. Your gear has some air, but it seems to be neutral to my ear. Manley ( the son ) also seems to have had some measure of success in this field, as has the Wavac phono, which I have heard. However all these efforts are still far from real life and to my mind, this constitutes the biggest gap between the live event and our facsimilies. If I understand you right, "bloom" according to your definition would then always be the result of even order harmonic distortion in tubes. It sometimes mimics air to a certain degree, but it is basically something different.