2 vs 8 tubes in preamp, sound difference?

sure -- exactly 4 times better!!! go for it!!!

just like salt on food

ibuprofen for pain

ambien for sleep

more more more... yep, that is the answer...

@emergingsoul Did the OP simply mean # of tubes or # of active elements? Just because an ARC SP9 has 2 tubes does not mean that it does not have any other active components. Then the argument is tubes vs solid state and not the number of tubes.

Seems 2 tubes is very close to ss.  What is a hybrid preamp?

have heard a higher priced ss is just as good as tubes and handles higher and lower end freq better than tubes

While everybody in this thread has made great points, @jjss49 clearly wins. ROFLMAO! Thank you. Cheers,

Spencer

Good pts, yet much confusion herein.

line stage preamps are needed and simple, so why are they soooo overpriced? $20k, 30k, etc. just crazy.

what makes very nice amps so damn expensive?