The realization that perhaps I don’t need tubes in the chain!!!

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

I think you will only find out by adding the various pre-amps and listening.

 

There will be technical arguments for and against adding a pre-amp (active or passive) vs digital volume control. You can also trial tube vs solid state pre amps.

Interesting you describe "natural and organic" sound with tubes out of the system (if understanding correctly). In the past I think many would have found the opposite. I have all solid state now and do find it natural and organic and do not miss the tubes from yesteryear.

 

FWIW I have always preferred active (with gain) preamp in the system over passive or digital volume control. The caveat is it must be a good quality unit that does whatever it does (impedance matching or source output or signal/voltage gain...) without degrading the signal through its power supply etc ie less distortion. Some will say that is not possible, others swear by it. You must decide. It will also depend on implementation and circumstances but thus far I prefer with active preamp.

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

10 minutes ago, dericchan1 said:

Thanks for your comments. Just to provide a bit more background of my preamp.

 

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/schiit-freya-pre-amp-review.36059/

 

The Schiit Freya plus is a preamp with three modes - 1) passive preamp mode that is simply a direct pass through with complete transparency, as you can see from the measurements, SINAD of 121db at unity gain, that’s pretty much just showing the SINAD of the analyzer!! 
 

2) Solid state differential mode at 0 db gain, that is the active preamp mode - this is where I think it perhaps does not sound as good as a better active preamp with gain. I am not good at describing sound quality but this is no where near as good as passive mode, it sounds almost a bit dry and thin with a bit of exaggeration of bass…

 

3) Tube mode that goes through a different circuitry powered by 4 6SN7 tubes with 12db of gain. I had been using the tube mode for the longest time and used to think that it sounded “natural, organic, coherent” but I am starting to think otherwise !!!

 

Currently the tube mode is dead, that’s why I had started to experiment the solid state mode and discovered I really enjoyed the passive mode, while I wait for my buddy to have time to fix the tube mode…

 

I will let others talk about the measurements. If you are finding the passive mode arguably better than the tube preamp mode it is possible that you do not need to add a preamp at all (solid state or other kind) eg if not addressing impedance mismatching or whatever.You would have to try a very good quality active SS preamp to see what if any improvements occur. Subjectively, for me , it has been mainly improvement in 'body' and texture sounding more lifelike, less signature which is counterintuitive when adding something. You must be careful to volume match when doing comparisons.

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

6 hours ago, dericchan1 said:

the Anker usb hub is passive and good for easy comparison but should not impact sound quality since I have an intona usb isolator in the mix.

 

I think its just about trying to eliminate variables that may confound the outcome.