Had a Vali2 and was completely unimpressed. I do wonder about the Valhalla 2, but not sure if it would work with my collection.
the valhalla 2 was damn good as a preamp for adding tube flavor. i don’t know if i’d pay retail for one but i paid $200 for mine and kept it for a long time. i think the only problem i had with it was that as a straight amp on sensitive headphones it had quite a bit of noise and i think it was because it didn’t have a 0 gain setting.
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Interesting amp for under $1000 SS ??
There are many SS amps less than $1K for sure.
But why would you be interested in these over what you have!
The iFi is superb…
You could go thru several try, buy or return from many vendors…
I did this many times and have come back to what I have at present.
I still try different amps, but honestly what you have is really decent.
But I understand the itch!!
Good luck!
I have no intention of getting rid of the V220 or the iFi. Both are keepers. I am just looking for an interesting addition to the collection without breaking the bank.
All of this still to me points to the answer being a dedicated tube preamp, rather than getting a OTL tube headphone amplifier that also has preamp capability. You have lovely amplifiers already. If you had Senns and Beyers and ZMFs, I’d pursue this path.
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I have never owned or even looked into pre-amps. That will be a new path for research! Thank you.
My headphone line-up is listed above and I am Way to poor to own ZMF’s. 
Hello,
I thought of that.
But my knowledge of Peramp is not good.
That’s why I felt it was better not to say anything.
But it would be an option.
Whether it should be equipped with tubes and is better is another matter.
From a purely technical point of view, I would notionally make a “hybrid amplifier” out of both units.
At least that’s how I feel about it.
As far as I know, the preamp goes analogue in at the end and analogue out to the amplifier, which then also needs an analogue input.
I don’t know if the Ify amplifier has one, but the V280 should logically have one.
I have just discovered pre-amping myself. So far, I’m loving it. I’m currently using the stuff I have to do it. I have the TA-20 configured to preamp the SP200 for headphones, and I use the SA-1 to pre-amp the DA-9.
I am really enjoying the extra nuance and depth each solution is bringing to the table. The SA-1 is really surprising as a pre. And I was a guy who pretty much crapped on the notion of pre-amps for anything other than minute signal amplification. I was completely wrong! My next speaker amp solution will most certainly include a pre-amp.
Your mileage will vary, of course, but it might be fun to investigate.
Both amps do have SE and XLR pre-outs.
One amp that I am looking at again is the XDuoo MT-604. Apparently it has very high gain, like my recently sold LP, but I wonder what would happen if I preamped it from one of my big boys?
It gets a lot of love from many reviewers and it is Dirt cheap.
I am now looking into this. I don’t want to spend a lot of money on an expensive tube amp to be, possibly, underwhelmed or disappointed.
My headphones are pretty efficient and I am not a real loud listener.
I just wonder if I can pre-amp a small tube amp, or do I need to buy a tube pre-amp to pre-amp my big boys?
Lots to learn.
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Hello,
Yes, the Mt 604 is one of those things - it’s cheap, so it’s built that way.
Things can break quickly with these things.
My Little Dot 1+ went out after 6 months with a defective capacitor and socket.
As an experiment, I repaired it and fitted it with better components and it has been running very well and reliably ever since.
As an experiment, you can try the Mt 604 and switch between them.
But I would definitely equip it with better tubes and not use the Chinese tubes.
They are usually pointed in the upper area and tend to fail.
On the subject of tube amplifiers in general, there’s not much to it.
Usually the transformer costs the most, but it is also important that everything else works as it should.
The rest of the board resistors are not that expensive, capacitors are always a question.
Whether they are made of wax/paper, foil/telephone etc. and of course the size and brand.
The advantage of the tube amp is simply that if it is cleanly built like Feliks,Woo,Quicksilver,Decware show it has enormous potential compared to SS amps.
They are simply more flexible and can make a big difference to the sound with just one set of tubes, both positive and negative.
Once you have found a tube set, it will usually outperform the SS amp (usually for you).
And usually there is still potential in it through capacitor swapping where you can push the amp where you want if you want.
I did this with the Euforia, for example.
I installed Vcap TFTF and it improved a lot, the amp suddenly worked better and more harmonically even with less good tubes that I considered a bad buy.
Just as an example.
So it doesn’t always have to be expensive tubes to get good sound out of it if the rest of the interior life is coherent.
The small, expensive upgrade alone puts the Singxer Sda 2 C up against the wall in terms of sound with a tube set of less than $100.
So tube amplifiers are not to be underestimated.
They are often frowned upon by the fads of various manufacturers, communities and so on.
Which is a bit of a shame because tube amps also benefit enormously from today’s technology in capacitors, resistors, solder, cables and transformers.
The little toys from Little Dot,Dark Voise ect also have potential but not as big.
You can often only adapt them with better electrolytic capacitors, and help with better cable in the circuit and tube socket.
The same would probably also be possible with a preamp on a custom basis, that you look that there are enough inputs and outputs, and equip with common tube types, then you also have something long-term in your hands.
The costs are usually less than what the market offers.
Ask here for an amplifier, how much it should cost, it is on your doorstep.
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Thanks for the info. I am not going to buy another expensive tube amp.
I have had several hybrids and a few “pure” tube amps. None have blown me away.
I did really like the sound of the LP and currently am in love with my iFi, but not because it is in any tubey.
I had a chance to buy a Cayin tube amp the other day, but I wasn’t ready to commit and tried to trade for it.
I will be looking and taking notes for the next while.
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just sounds like you haven’t found the ‘one’… the tube amp that opens the world to you.
perhaps check out the forum on CAM n see if there is anyone close enuff to you that has something to demo? or get on the horn and reach out to resellers of potential tube amps you find interesting / intriguing from what you read and see if you can demo? 
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There are pretty much no sellers around me. All my “testing” is done via buy and sell. And of course lots of losses.
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time for a ROAD TRIP!!!
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Hello,
Let me put it this way.
Many people have huge expectations of something like this, and I was one of them.
Because one is always occasionally carried away by test reports, reviews and whatever else one reads.
To be honest, it is something else, but that something else comes later.
With the Feliks Euforia, I had such high expectations at the beginning and was disappointed.
I was two steps away from returning it.
When I saw that the tubes really need this time to develop, I gave them this time.
It really got better in the end when I replaced the tubes.
Where you then noticed okay there is really something going on.
I regretted buying the stock tubes at Euforia, for example, because they really weren’t anything special and my research confirmed this in the end.
Bit by bit, through small tube bargains, I got to where I wanted to go, which is my personal requirement.
The whole thing takes time in the end because not every manufacturer fits the tubes to the consumer at the beginning.
While others like it a lot, the other part of the community hates it.
But that is normal.
There is always one set of tubes that is better than the other and so on.
It’s also a bit of a head thing, especially when you come from an SS amp, you compare a lot of things against each other.
Once that’s out of your head, once you’ve tried 2-3 tubes, that’s when the trigger starts.
Because you realise that the tube was good or not so good for me, but on the other hand, these areas of music reproduction were better than before or worse.
The rest is automatically done by the head with the question if this tube was already passable you know that it is not the amplifier itself and you start looking for more tubes until the ideal one is found.
Exactly then you learn your own listening preferences to want / need to develop them further.
This also happens with a hybrid amplifier.
It happened to me with the Little Dot 1+ and also with the custom hybrid amplifier I had built.
In the meantime I know where I stand and say okay, this fits so more is really not possible.
With the Ify, you could probably also swap the tubes for a Wester Electric if you want it to be a bit warmer and juicier.
The 5670 tubes would not be too expensive.
Most manufacturers tend to have everything neutrally tuned out of the box.
Which usually gets boring very quickly.
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As I read this, I’m trolling the web for tubes. And I JUST received 2 pairs this afternoon. Damn this hobby!
This TA-20 has been a good amp for me. It has given me a taste of what tubes can be like, and I am really impressed with it in the pre-amp role. It has given a quality to the SP200 that I never could have imagined. I think I see a full-on tube pre-amp in my future. Or I’m just gonna say the hell with it, get a WA22 and be done with it.
@ShaneD It seems like it’s gonna be tough to find one under that 1K mark. But half the fun is in the hunt.
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Hello,
The Woo wa22 doesn’t look wrong, what bothers me personally is the 6080 tubes.
The 6080 can only be found as Nos tubes and are no longer manufactured.
You pay on the Nos market for good tubes, like a Mullard 6080 for a pair 200-300$.
So it’s a bit outrageous in that respect.
Even if they are good tubes.
If you want my advice spend the money for the Wa22 in a custom build and design the sockets so that you can use the new tube production on the market.
Instead of 6080, El34 or equivalent, the rest could be 6sn7 and 5u4g, for example, there is a lot of variety from old and new production.
Then you will have a very good tube amplifier in the long run and also a very good resale value.
And you can also roll tubes as you like without always having to watch the money.
This was an important aspect for me personally when I had the hybrid amplifier built.
For example, I found 6SN7 tubes where Sophia Electric charges $200 each, which is actually a Nos tube, under a different name for $60 a pair, but only because I got a good tip from another forum somewhere.
The Ta20 doesn’t look bad at all - the 12au7 tubes are quite good on the market.
Both on the Nos market and from the new production.
Do you use the Dac in your preamplification or do you just feed the signal through?
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I had decent luck with a 728a preamp. Tube rolling was a nightmare on it but yielded some pretty nice results. I think they go for like $200.
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I have been looking for the WE396a’s. I get what you mean about expectations. I am going to be patient and not spend too much.