Recently I have been thinking of incorporating a tube preamp into my system. On the list of preamps I have been thinking of using are the Rogue 99 and the Cary SLP98. Both of these preamps “invert phase” (new term to me). The remedy is to either reverse the connections at the amp OR the speaker. They also can be equipped with Home Theater bypass. Will this arrangement work using the 990 running through the new preamp? I guess my main question is can I use a phase inverting preamp with the 990? I hope I’ve explained this clearly enough (because I’m all confused – lol). Thanks for any insights or advice.

Don

The tube pre-amps which invert phase basically swap the positive and negative terminals on their output from their input. I am not sure if the 990 will have an issue with that but it is possible that it will not pass the signal backwards. I would think that it would have no issue since it is sort of like swapping the red and white leads on an analog input. The 990 probably won't have an issue because I have swapped the left and right channel leads before to try to isolate an issue and both channels put out the same sound but reversed. I assume by the term "using the 990 running through the new preamp" that the tube pre-amp is feeding the 990 through an analog input and then to the main amp. I am not familiar with the pre-amps above but I would expect that either the volume control on the tube preamp or the 990 would have to be set in a position for the proper gain. If the tube pre-amp has an output path that can connect directly to the main amp that might be a solution since it has a volume control on the preamp.

Thanks for the response XenonMan. Having been all over the place on what to do I have finally decided to have both a dedicated 2 channel system and HT system. Just easier to figure out - space is now my problem (lol).

Bear in mind that you could use the tube preamplifier to feed any extra amp channels you may have assuming the preamplifier has volume control which almost all do. The obvious advantage to feeding the 990 with it is no need for more speakers.