Tube pre-amps $3500 under to add "warmth"

i have listened to both in my own system.

the pv5 is more tube like then the pv 10 and the sp 8 is not very tube like. i have listened to the sp6's and sp3's.

my concern about some of the older preamps is the possibility that parts will nedd replacement and then the preamp will change its sound.

i have heard several single ended amplifiers i like, but very few preamps.

hopefully, i'll find one. i am looking into the audio note preamps, but i have no idea as to their sonic signatures.

i remember listening to an mfa luminescence which i liked years ago, but there were many versions of this preamp.

hi mitch2:

i have never liked the atmosphere electronics. again, it's the modern tube design, on the neutral side. yes, its very transparent and it's not edgy, but there is no romance. it is not tube like in the classic sense.

The SP-8 is not tube like? I give up!

I'm surprised about Mr. Tennis' reaction to the JPL too; at least the earlier version of that line stage, with Telefunken or EI tubes in it, has all the tube bloom you could want (the JP80 even more so), particularly when I had it paired with the Jadis JA80 amps. What was in the rest of the system? Could the source of your problem be there (i.e., pairing the tube preamp with an early solid state amp or CD player)? Definitely a mystery. I would think that the Audio Note components would fill the bill too, but now I'm not so sure.

hi jafox:

the jadis ja 80, the original defy 7, some of the cj pv5 preamps are all examples of the classic tube sound--creamy, rich, and carmel colored--yummy.

audio research pramps do not have the classic tube sound.
it's no big deal. very few tube preamps have that sound.