What's a Triode configuration?

Judy426, I do want to thank you for your opinion and your suggestions, I don't want to be close minded concerning my future choice so when I am in position to be doing so I hope that you will be available to offer me an opinion when I have selected an amp at that time. But still what makes a Triode configuration different from say a Pentode? and what are some basic considerations in matching a Solid State amp with a tube Pre Amp? I'm not clear as to how the impedance matching works? (I do understand impedeance on a more simple level though).

While I don't disagree with Judy426's assertions. and my last ARC product was purchased more than two decades ago, my own take on this is that many audiophiles who have toiled through the process of learning what listening is all about (I bought my first component system in 1964), soon discover that personal taste can override reality.

In addition to those recommendations, I'd have to include any number of the currently available Chinese products that appear to offer performance bettering many of their higher-priced domestic counterparts. Having just recently heard the new ModWright Labs preamp, I'd have to include this among those I might have to concede is better than your garden variety ARC piece.

As to your question about impedance matching of a SS amp to a tube preamp, I'm confident in saying that the good designs are within tolerances that most makers are using, and that this would be less of a problem than you seem to think it will be. Nonetheless there are issues between components that need to be addressed. Some, like the Rogue, invert phase/polarity -- which means that you will need to reverse your speaker cable's leads unless your amplifier also inverts. Beyond that, you will find that tonal balance varies, so you would want to select a preamp that is complimentary to that balance and bandwidth of your chosen amplifier.

In the end, though, the ultimate decision as to what works for you should be your own. It's what makes you happy that counts most.

"...what makes a Triode configuration different from say a Pentode?"

Tiodes and pentodes are different kinds of vacuum tubes. A triode has 3 active parts, a pentode 6. A pentode has more voltage gain than a triode, but, GENERALLY, triodes sound better. (Some triode fans say that pentodes sound more like transistors.) GENERALLY, triodes are used in Voltage-gain situations such as preamps and the frontends of poweramps, while pentodes and beam tetrodes are used in the output sections of tubed poweramps.

But lots of us prefer triodes all around, the most-extreme execution of that being the SET or Single-Ended Topology (or Single-Ended Triode). ('Single-Ended' means NOT having amplifying devices in push-pull configuration.) I have a pair of Antique Sound Labs Explorer 805 SET poweramps that I love. To confuse the issue, pentodes and beam tetrodes can be wired into triodes. They then have less Voltage gain and (maybe) they sound better. Triode-wired pen- and tetrodes are used in poweramp output sections or as output-tube drivers and NOT in Voltage-gain situations.

So, again, if you're considering a tubed preamp, simply ask the manufacturer if it's all triode.
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Jeffrey,

A pentode has 5 active parts - the prefix "penta" means 5 -
as in Pentagon.

Those 5 parts are cathode, plate, control grid, screen grid,
and suppressor grid. [ One doesn't count indirect heaters.]

http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_3/chpt_13/6.html

Dr. Gregory Greenman
Physicist

Thx, Doc. Obviously didn't think about THAT one!
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