What Solid State PreAmp?

I agee with Larry on this one. My latest preamp is Dodd and tubes that it cam with were JJs new stock that sound like crap. In contrast, Mullards or Amperex pumped new life into Dodd that out of the box was lacking soul and character. Since it is very sensetive to tube rolling it is a tweakers delight and an easy fix to fine tune the sound to taste or preferances that one might seek.
Gary's choice of tubes was driven by exactlly the same reasones that Larry point out in his post.

06-10-08: Mrjstark said:
"I agee with Larry on this one. My latest preamp is Dodd and tubes that it cam with were JJs new stock that sound like crap. ..."

Exactly my point. I prefer to buy something that would make the designer proud, not something he'd have to apologize for.

Dave

Hi there MIKEAUDIO. Don't know what part of the country you're living in, but you really should try to get access to the H-Cat PR7 preamp (retail list $4995). I have used and owned many of the top-ranked preamps over the years (tube and solid state), but I have never heard a preamp that can bring the music to life like the H-Cat. The sound is frightingly live sounding. I have been an audiophile/music lover over 50 years and I can honestly say that the H-Cat is the "best of the best". Try it and don't make up your mind after 20 minutes as one audiogoner did. After it is fully broken in, you will have a hard time going back to any other preamp. It has no colorations of the sound. If you want to hear the truth, you won't be dissapointed.

Dave, it is not the design itself. It it is a lot less expencive in the long shot to fine tune the sound with pair of tubes then being stock with what you don't have any control of and its only a matter of time when bug hits again. It would be nice if one could come up with the formula that would answer the question to which is the best preamp out there. However, there is no such a thing and it never will be as long as there is two or more audiophiles with opinions and different tastes. I sill stand behide my opinion that you have more freedom and flexibility with tubes then SS and that leads to longer satisfaction. It is only my opinion Dave nothing personal.

No offense taken Mrstark. Thank you for your concern.

At the risk of staying OT a little longer, I see where some people might really enjoy tweaking and twiddling. That's totally valid. Still, for every tweaker that gets great enjoyment out of tracking down the best tubes for his or her amp or preamp, there's at least one non-tweaker, like me, that just wants great sounding equipment right out of the box and doesn't want to do anything but listen to music for the next ten-years or so.

So, I'll stick by my guns, IMHO, tube rolling is not an advantage of tubes vs. SS, UNLESS you really have a need to do such things and it makes you feel good, then I say, "Have at it." ;-)

I'll admit, I tube rolled my Woo Audio WA6 headphone amp. So shoot me. I'm not proud of it. I did research for weeks over at head-fi.org and then searched for weeks for a reasonably priced tube and then I struck, only one. I'm pleased with my upgrade. Jack Woo makes no bones that he offers the amp with compromise tubes and other circuits in order to me his mid three-digit price point. He offers upgrades. The expense was small in proportion to the rest of my system and my headphone setup is a much lower priority than my speakers. Hence, I fell off the wagon just this once.

Dave