1. Home
  2. amps-preamps
  3. 197530-181583

Tube Pre and SS Power? Or the reverse?

I posted a week or so ago about trading in my McIntosh MA352 integrated amp for separates.  

Now my question is, which goes tube and which should be SS?

I have received almost 50/50 responses, even from dealers.  

I have a big room, that has been acoustically treated, Revel Studio 2 speakers, and I'm running 2 SVS subs.

Some say I should go with a C49 SS pre and a MC275 Power amp = about $18k, less my trade-in.

Others say C2800 pre and a MC462 Power amp = $22k.

Quite a big difference.

 

mojo771
inna
8,240 posts
 

Exactly.

Gryphon ss watts are very powerful.

inna
8,240 posts
 

That was in fact my dilemma a few years ago - to go with VAC Avatar tube integrated or Gryphon Diablo 120 integrated. I chose the VAC, absolutely no regrets, but Gryphons are fine machines.

vthokie83
1,229 posts
 

++++++++1 Tube preamps with solid state amplifiers, or all tube if your speakers are not difficult to drive. Also I always recommend buying the preamp first, as I've found it is the most important component in the chain; in my experience. Once you have an excellent preamp, you can add whatever amp(s) you prefer: tube, SS Class A, SS Class A/B, SS Class D.

I too am one who believes you can do much better than Macintosh gear, the below preamps are all direct to consumer; from companies that use only the highest available components in their build......saves 30% to 50% over a dealer supplied preamp.

After hearing more than a dozen preamps, I'd look into: Aric Audio Motherlode XL $6,875, Aric Audio Motherlode II $5,750, or Super 6SN7 $4,625 - Don Sachs/Lynn Olson Raven preamp (sold by Spatial Audio) $6,395 - Backert Labs Rhumba Extreme 1.4 (NOT the standard Rhumba) $8,500 - SupraTek 6SN7 Cabernet $4,000, Supratek 6SN7 Caberrnet DHT $4,500.

For disclosure I own the Aric Audio Motherlode XL preamp which is the best preamp I've ever heard, but the Don Sachs/Lynn Olson Raven preamp is a really close 2nd.....some may even prefer it to the Aric Audio.

All of the above preamps are 6SN7 tube based preamps, except the Backert Labs which is 12AU7 based preamp.

mojo771 OP
113 posts
 

vthokie83

Some interesting ideas.

When first shopping at dealers for a system, I noticed that a)every dealer seemed to rep different brands, which made comparison shopping difficult, and b) every high end dealer seemed to have two things in common; they all used McIntosh amps to demo their systems, and they all used the Bluesound Vault to stream.

So now that i have an integrated Mac amp, I can't go out and just get a different preamp.  McIntosh is having a trade up deal so thats why I'm looking now and only looking at McIntosh.  While all the above may be true, I really didn't want to start all over.  Plus, I'd love to hear the gear before I shell out thousands.

More to discover