Tube Pre-amp with SS AMP or stay all SS?

The only thought that comes to my mind about moving to a more upscale preamp, be it tube or SS, is this... I’ve found that as one moves up the food chain PRAT and resolution increase. With a good line up, and I've heard the Mac top line pre with the 501s, and those XR series (12K) speakers, it was an enjoyable sounding event... albeit a brief one.. about 30 mins.

I'd suspect the house sound of THE Mac continues to improve in resolution and transparency as one moves up.

Personally, I'd be more concerned about going tube or SS from the CARY in terms of the systems needs, and naturally my own tastes.

By that I mean, What are you shooting for?

Another note is as tube preamps increase in price they seem to sound less 'tubey' as well... and I enjoy that smack of tubeyness though not sugary or molassess like... the influence of a tube preamp in the system just seems to introduce more naturalness to it… and has some life within it. IMO

i've mnot found an SS preamp which can convey such things.... of course I ain't heard 'em all either.

I had a Mcintosh 7270 amp and hooked it up to a new Cary SLP98P preamp and it sounded great! I sold the Mac after 17 years and hooked up a Cary V12R amp to the Cary preamp and could not be happier. Rule of thumb, SS amp to tube preamp, no tube amp to SS preamp. All tubes is the best. I'd keep that Cary! My old preamp was a Carver C-1 and it sounded good with the Mac. I got rid of 6 signal processors because I no longer need them, and got an outboard Carver C-9 Sonic Hologram Generator.

Rule of thumb,not true.Tube power amp and ss pre amp can be equally synergistic.Irregardless of your persuasion you should have tubes somewhere in your system.