OK, think I have settled in with using an active preamp with my Firebottle KT88. While I have not been able to reproduce the sheer clarity and transparency that a passive preamp does, I do love what my Supratek is giving me with the right tubes. Everything is bigger, lusher, and for lack of a better term, there is a sense of heightened presence to instruments. The sound is addictive. So yeah, the preamp is likely only adding distortions so isn't as "accurate" as a passive but <shrug>.
I've found the input tube on the amp makes a big difference and like I posted above you can't really predict how it's going to work beforehand. Going back to the tall bottle 7n7 on the input has proven to be the best tube I've found so far in my system. The bass I was missing with the 6sl7wgt is back.
As always, the other thing that leads to better sound is better tubes. Unfortunately I've found the usual expensive suspects to live up to the hype. Both the round Plate TungSol 12sn7 and the so called bad boy Sylvania 12sn7 make an obvious improvement. I'm also really enjoying some of the tall 14n7 tubes as well.
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