Can tube preamps be as 'detailed' sounding as ss?

24phun: Can you comment about how your 98f1 sounds (as far as details) compared to your unnamed SS pre and tube pre? I of course am aware that we all hear things differently and our rooms and other components will differ.

The answer is absolutely YES, but not a tube preamp. Henry Ho's Fire preamp
should actually be redressed to amp status. As such, it would at least
compete with Pass Labs First Watt.

Adding it to my system has not, "Got out of the way." That seems
to have been the best compliment possible for a preamp. The Fire has
actually accentuated my H2O mono Sigs performance, as if it was a winning
relay runner handing off the baton at speed. They are an essential tandem.

It is my firm belief, the Fire preamp would stand high as a breakthrough solid
state amp.

I agree with Zaikesman, on paper the SS pre has impressive specs but upon listening to my c-j 17LS2 it sounds more involving and more like music than many SS pres I have owned or audition. People say SS pre have better bass extension but with my Spectral which boasts flat down to DC I didn't miss any bass extension and if there was I couldn't exploit it because my speaker system was not full range and yes te c-j has better midbass oopmh. This brings about another good queston, how many people out there have truly full range speakers systems flat down to 20 Hz anyways? And regards to the highs please someone give an example of missing info that tube pres can't retrieve or mask? When it comes to microdynamic life, harmony, rhythm and freeness of the sound tube pres are better and yes better mids. Poster said the SS pre had a wider soundstage which to me is less important than say having a pre sound flat, tight and not able to convey the wood, resonance and the nylon strings of an acoustic guitar. My c-j has so little hiss you have to put you ears right next to the speaker to hear a tiny bit whereas when I owned the Spectral combo I could here a hiss from my listening seat.

Here's the secret for a good pre-amp. One gain stage, using small signal tubes configured for triode, volume attenuator using selected resistors and a good power supply with film/foil caps.

Good Luck!*>)

"To my eyes, the guys of any ss amp/pre are disgusting looking. Really gross."

Well Bartokfan, you've absolutely got me there. But how can you even see me through the keyboard like that? Amazing...

The quick answer is 'yes'.

The more complex answer is that transistor preamps might sound more detailed at first blush due to the presence of odd-ordered harmonic content (at low level) which serves as a loudness cue in the mids and highs. This causes them to seem more detailed, but a good tube preamp will have actually more detail yet be laid-back at the same time.

IOW some audiophiles equate brightness and detail unconsiously- when odd-orderd distortion is what they are really talking about (this is where the term 'clinical' comes from). Often the word 'dynamics' is used to describe odd-ordered harmonic distortion too.