[warnerwh]

one powered by a tube preamp.  I want to thank everyone for their input when I asked about a tubey sounding SS amp on another thread. I ended up trying a tube preamp instead(too long to explain why now). It did the trick perfectly. Bought a Cary AE 3 and knew I was on the right track. Put in an ARC LS 16 and I'm done.  Tried 3 dacs before this, one with tubes but without success.  It's a match made in heaven. No grain or grunge left.  Not to mention virtually everything has improved, it's almost surrealistic at times.  Anybody who has not tried a tube preamp and would like to get rid of grain and dryness try a tube preamp.   Maybe the Krell SS preamp is more accurate according to everything I read comparing ss to tubes but the ARC tube preamp sounds more real and natural.  The people who say tubes aren't as accurate as ss stuff are actually wrong at least some of the time. This assuming accuracy=realism of sound and not measurements.

[Psychicanimal]

I switched from a tube preamp (Melos SHA-1) driving a Forté 4 class A SS amp to a passive preamp.  It was a major improvement in clarity and musicality.  There is no grain in my system.  Properly executed SS is something to be listened to.  My other amps are a pair of Marantz Esotec MA-5' class A monoblocks and they have extremely good sound with a midrange to die for...

[markC]

I've been running a tube cdp and tube pre w/a ss amp for about 1 1/2 yrs. now and am getting closer and closer to what "I" want. I've rolled tubes, upgraded the amp, played with wires and am quite happy, yet I do know that the chase will never truly end.... I was in an advertised "audiophile" shop last week and sat down to listen to the all ss system that they had playing there and couldn't wait to pull the knitting needles out of my ears. O.K, I'm exagerating, but I really prefer tubes in the set-up, colouration and all.