Tubes vs Tubeless

@bahston I am a Tube Power Amp' user since the early 90's and as a result of my keenness have ended up with a selection of Custom Built Tube Power Amp's to be used today. Until a few years past there was not a SS Power Amp' I had heard that was to make me rethink my usage of Valve Power Amp's. 

Also I have been a user of Tube, SS and Autoformer Pre's and to date, have not settled on One Design, I like what is able to be the influence from all designs.

Today I am having a Pre' design produced as a Custom Build that enables my enjoyment of different influences to be met all within one box.

Additional to this I am a user of Valves for Phonostages and a DAC.

I have owned a selection of SS Phon's and heard quite a range of SS DAC's. I have a Custom Built SS Phonostage waiting my pick up as I write and am actively seeking out a SS DAC.

Why SS?, This is to do with a not too long gone experience where I was introduced to Neurochrome Power Amplification. There is reports on this experience had and follow up ones, which are reasonably easy to be found on the Gon.

I believe the Neurochrome Power Amp's are more than adequate for my later in life system. I'm so confident about this that I have a Neurochrome Monoblock design on loan at present to see how it compares to my own Amp's within my System. Experience already has, leaves me assured there is to be a big surprise.

In todays money, the N'chrome Amp's are cheaper to purchase than the Bespoke Wound Output Transformers used on my 845 Monoblocks.

My very very strong suspicion is that my All Valve Amplification and DAC, will be easily challenged by the SS System to be created and A/B compared.

Valve Equipment adds up to Stupid Monies (Approx' £40K-50K+) spent across 30ish years. If the entirety of the Valve System was not all Custom Design and Built, going down the Retail Purchase route will easily be close to £150K + to get the idea the assembly was being competed with.

The SS System (Custom Built Phon' - DAC - Pre - Monoblock Power ) will cost in todays money close to £6K - £7K using N'chrome Amp's.

The SS System in total, is near the price of the Bespoke Wound Transformers for both Power Supply and Audio on 1x PP Monoblock 845.

Very Recently, I purchased replacement Valves ( Modern Design 845's and Vintage era Input Valves) for the 845's at £2K.

For myself Valve Purchases are as good as done in my life, SS equipment will at some stage supersede the Valve equipment.

The palette now has a few new mixes to increase options now the final picture is able to be created.        

I am not a big tube fan. I find I lose resolution, but the holographic sound of tubes is very nice.

I heard the Allnic line of DAC and preamps and I was floored because it has both great resolution and a holographic sound with the tubes. After some research I concluded that it was not the tubes on the Allnic that was making it great, it was the OTL/OCL output stage of the Allnic DACs and preamps.

Now I cannot afford Allnic gear at this time and I lucked into discovering the $500 Schiit Valhalla 3 OTL/OCL headphone amp / preamp. I am only listening to it as a preamp. It is not practical for most setup, single input, no remote.

If you are someone that is a bit disappointed in tubes because of the not-so-great resolution. Listen to an OTL/OCL design. I only know of Allnic and Schiit that have this.

For the Quicksilver fans following this thread, Mike Sanders confirmed with me recently that the Mono 120s use 20db of feedback, while the newer KT Monos utilize 16.5db of feedback. I assume that he shoots for low impedance output specs, thus the use of feedback. I own both of these models, and they are both superb.

Thank you for your insights.

I will post my choice/chooses of units when I’ve completed this leg of the journey and will let you know my thoughts.

@bahston 

I started with tubes and went back and forth with SS until just a few years ago when I bought PS Audio.  Their BHK line is all Hybrid, the Signature Preamp and BHK amplifiers have a tube input section and a MOSFET transistor output section (mosfets put out a warmer sound). I’m getting the warmer sound I was looking for without all the heat of lots of output tubes. They just discontinued the BHK preamp and the BHK250 and300 amplifiers so you can get them at half price or less.

If you have the money, Audio Research makes some incredible stuff (mostly tube) and they are built very well!  The sound is probably everything you want, but there is a lot of heat from the power tubes and depending on your room size and where you live can heat up small pretty quick.  
 

Another idea would be to get a tube preamp and a SS or Hybrid amplifier. Depending on how loud you play your music might be the best solution.

All the best.