Considering going back to Solid State


I have had and Audio Research REF5se now for a few years and love it. Let me be clear, I love the sound and am not wanting to trade back to SS for anything it does wrong. But I am wanting to simplify and get away from tubes and the heat and concern for hours, etc.

So I am seeking advice in the 10-15K range on solid state pre-amps that would be comparable in performance to what I now have. Considering the Ayre 5 series, SimAudio Moon, McIntosh as a few considerations. Which brings me to you, any experience that you have had making a similar comparison would be helpful.

The rest of the 2 channel side is a Mc402 Amp and Revel speakers, how ever in the next month I plan to either buy the Sopra 2's or the Sonus Olympica Nova III, all cardas wiring in case this helps.


Thank You in advance

Theo

128x128theo
After recently auditioning the well regarded Schiit Audio Aegir amp (driven by curiosity clearly influenced by the extremely positive Stereophile review) in my home rig (meaning I bought the amp and returned it), I’ve moved even more toward the Tubes Just Sound Better camp. I get that SS amp designers like the brilliant Nelson Pass make beautiful sounding gear, with "tube-like" tone and otherwise world class design, I just prefer whatever actual tubes do over what transistors TRY to do. I respect Schiit’s design efforts and use a Freya tube preamp among other items, along with a Dennis Had "Inspire" single ended tube power amp (albeit tied to efficient speakers), and I’m astonished at the results. Pass has described what he thinks is the reason that a tube’s harmonic content and specific distortion profile is what makes things "musical" (or at least maybe more realistic), and I like his philosophy...the way I prefer to apply that philosophy? Tubes. SS has its place with the super clean pro power amps I own, along with a Class D Ampeg bass amp the size of a cereal box (although I’d prefer a tubed SVT but don’t play bass often enough to bother with one), and my great sounding REL subs, but to get the mojo into my earballs I seem to need whatever tubes do...my mind remains open to listen to other stuff here and there, but for my main hifi needs and guitar pickin’ it’s really hard to beat good ol’ tubes.
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Theo

My Sansui Au 7700 sound like a tube amplifier with the precision of an SS one...
The sound is so warm and detailed that upgrading is foolishness...Tough I upgrade with a supposedly better sansui of the ALPHA series...More refined sound , but no more like tubes atmospherical warm aura... I keep the 2 they are too god but I run with the less good of the 2 : the 7700... :)

Vintage was for me the right path, cheap, flexible, legendary good sound... There exist better... If you own money go to read about ZOTL technology of David Berning and say bye to upgrading S.S. or tubes...This guy reinvent tube amplifier or pre-amplifier with insane long life tubes without heat and new technology to use them directly as output...He is a physicist, then instead of an engineering variation on the known usual design he totally reinvent tubes amplifier...His amplifier is the only upgrade I want someday, but because I cannot listen to the gear I have bought, I read thousand of hours before buying and my actual amp is a marvel that is all I want now...And I am more than satisfied with my actual speakers, dac, an amplifier I bought for peanuts dollars after this studying...

Buy used, buy legendary mythical products, or less known revolutionary contemporary one...Be careful with contemporary too well publicized products...Hype is not an indication that the product is bad for sure, he must be good indeed; but hype is rarely the indication of revolutionary top products for many reason: too high cost, or if not too cheap cost; and some little company without great marketing strategies owns revolutionary too good to be true audio products, and the last reason may be too much originality in the product....

My last advice is dont buy anything before listening to what you owns already in the first place...The most important thing in Audio is the methods to controls the acoustical embeddings, the electrical embeddings, and methods to controls the vibrations-resonance plague...Buying before addressing that is throwing money to the wind instead of thinking.... More easy to throw money than thinks.... :)

Top Hi-Fi cost under 1000 dollars if someone think about it... I know for sure this was my path... :)

The only thing this audio hobby have teach me is that what we already owns is able to reach a potential sound quality unbeknownst to us, sometimes a very high level...Never mind the price....
The only thing the audio market advise us generally is to buy to upgrade the audio system we already owns without thinking about the conditions of his right implementation and embedding which could make it able to reach this true sound quality, his original potential, unknown to us to this day...Never mind the price...
Think about that discovery: most of us dont know the fine audio possibilities of our audio system that are veiled behind, vibrations, high noise level, bad acoustic room, and the least effort to "tweak" what we have, when we contemplate the easy solution : to buy.... Never mind the price....
The greatest miracle in audio:
The transformation of a system we dont like enough in one that is at the top of his potential and which we begins to truly love...Never mind the price...


Remember the key to hi-fi is not mostly in the electronic components quality " per se", it is in the technical methods to implement and embed them first... The rest is illusion electronic marketing ploy...

I should have written in my last sentence: " the rest is OFTEN, not all the times for sure,illusive electronics marketing ploys" out of respect for at least half of what is written in articles... But my main idea is unchanged....All cats cannot be in the same bags indeed....
I had a McIntosh C50 (solid state preamp) paired with my McIntosh MC452 (solid state power amp), and had the opportunity to audition a McIntosh C2500 tube preamp, and found that it had a slightly more "musical" tone, especially with acoustic instruments.

One of my audio buddies let me know that tubes in the preamp, handling low power signals would last a long time, his were 9 years old and not in need of replacement.

I sold the C50 and upgraded the C2500 to Gold Lion tubes and am very happy with the way it pairs with my other equipment!