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Which would you choose for good sounding tube preamp for an audiophile new to tubes.

I need your help guys. I would like to add a tube preamp to pair with my reference 200.2 B&K amplifier. My speakers are large ADS L1590 towers ( 90 DB efficiency rating). They were a flagship back in the day. I have had them restored by an ads tech. I am l looking at  a QUICKSILVER LINESTAGE LS PREAMPLIFIER, VTL 5.5 preamplifier, and a Sonic Frontiers SFL-1. All are currently used and on audiomart or audiogon. The Sonic Frontiers is for sale on hi-fi heaven. I purchased from them before and they check out the equipment that is preowned. My system is a little bright and dynamic sounding using the sonata B&K preamp. (There best at the time). I am looking for a little warmth in the sound and no harshness. I want some slam and afraid I will lose it if I go with tubes.  I have had success buying certain units because of the knowledge dispensed through this forum I am a member of Audiogon in good standing. Any help would be great. I appreciate the feedback. 

arichison
dtune
5 posts
 

The impedance mismatch between a tube preamp and solid state preamp can be very real. If you look closely at all the audio research tube preamps for example they usually don't match well with solid state amplifiers regarding minimum input impedance. For that reason on a whim I tried the PS audio BHK preamp which has a robust low impedance solid state output and a tube input stage and I'm really happy with that choice. I think this preamp is out of your price range but I would be hesitant to match a tube preamp with a solid state amplifier unless you met the impedance specifications of both components.

ditusa's avatar
ditusa
2,446 posts
 

The reason I say Quicksilver is because their stuff is all point to point wired.

Not the LINESTAGE preamp.

Mike

 

oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
4,577 posts
 

Sorry, their amps are all P2P.   Still a good pre.  

ditusa's avatar
ditusa
2,446 posts
 

Sorry, their amps are all P2P.   Still a good pre.  

I agree! I have the Silver Sixty mono blocks 20 years.

Mike

holmz's avatar
holmz
2,328 posts
 

I owned a 1990’s Tubed CD Player… was warm but completely lacking in details. I can’t help but thinking an ancient preamp would sound similar. The VTL is equally old. The 1990’s tube equipment tended to be really warm but lacking in detail. Therefore, I am thinking look towards the Quicksilver.

I used a 1999 Audible Illusions Modulus preamp till just recently, and it seemed pretty adequate.

What is the OPs budget?

(S)/He mentioned “slam” and the tube amps I have used seem to do pretty good in that regard.
There is no obvious reason that a SS amp would be better “slam”, unless we are talking about a 5W SET versus a 400W monoblock. But the 80-100W push/pull monoblock tube units seems to keep up OK.

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