Trying separates for the first time

Scott,

I agree with Plato that pairing a good tube preamp with a solid-state amp is a good idea. Whenever I used this type of setup (VTL tube pre with an Aragon ss amp or the VTL with a class D amp)) it's sounded more dimensional and palpable, more like you're in the room with the musicians.

You may want to check to make sure the input impedance of the McCormack amp is about 10 times the output impedance of the CJ preamp; this is called impedance matching and is important for making sure the CJ's volume control use is optimized and for best performance.

Tim

Scott,

Glad to hear you're liking the tube pre with the ss amp. Seems like Schubert had a very bad experience of a blown tube taking out his speakers. Terrible and I'm not going to say it's not possible. Blown tubes are typically much more common in tube amps than preamps. The only comfort I can offer is that blown preamp tubes resulting in blown speakers is not a common issue although always a possibility. I used a tube pre with both a class A/B and class D solid-state amps for a period of 10 years and never had a blown tube.

The harder part, IMO, is knowing when tubes need to be replaced. Tubes wear down so gradually, over such a long time span, that degradation in sound is hard to notice and you become accustomed gradually to the slowly degrading performance. You only become aware of the extent of the degradation in performance once the tubes are replaced. I found it's better to replace the tube(s) after a specific time, say every year, than to rely on your ears. When you listen once the fresh tubes are installed and broken in for the required duration, the improvements are very obvious.

I hope this helps you a bit.

Enjoy,
Tim