Preamp upgrade


Hi all,
I'm considering changing from a tube pre to a solid state, partly because of the maintenance but also I want to try something different, my budget is $1200. I've also noticed an oscillating hum in the left channel, so I'm guessing a tube's going bad, so there's another reason. I'm looking at a Parasound P5 & McIntosh D100 which are listed on Audiogon, I'm looking for a little direction. Thanks in advance
My setup:
VTL 2.5 preamp
 McIntosh MC275 amp
Sonus Faber Olympica I speakers
Auralic Aries streamer
Auralic Altair DAC
Clear Audio Concept turntable
Nordost cables/interconnects
maddog66blue

Showing 2 responses by maddog66blue

After swapping out the tubes, I'm now having issues whenever I bump the preamp or change inputs, I hear a crackle, which leads me to believe it's a bigger problem. To those of you that said moving from a tube to solid state, I understand what you're saying and do agree, I think it was a bit of a knee jerk reaction & maybe some upgrade-itis.
I ended up taking the preamp in for service and found there was a couple of bad tubes as well as the balance control needed cleaning. They cleaned the unit, replaced the failing tubes and for less than $100 I'm back in business.