wondering about direction

[mantisory2]

Hi all...I have been reading through the different forums and everyone seems pretty cool, helpful and very enthusiastic. I just have a question on how to start into this hobby.
Currently, my setup is:
Rotel Pre
Rotel CDP
Bryston 3bST
B&W CM4 speakers
older Sony turntablewith MM cartridge.
What I am wondering is that i'd like to try out tubes, and would also like to try out the DIY way and learn something along they way!
So...i have a fairly limited budget i suppose, and am wondering which direction would be good to go in...a tube-based preamp? if so, should it be passive? RIAA? and should I look at a kit such as the Foreplay or Basie? Will a pre get me started on the 'tube' sound, or should i try to do an Amplifier instead (the high voltages and expense may limit me here)
Thanks for your opinions and/or help!
Byron

[Hesky]

Hi mantisory, welcome aboard!!

IMO building a simple tube pre-amp would be a great start, your Bryston power amp is a great sounding solid state amp and would sound even smoother when paired up with dhs's basie pre. It’s a simple pre amp to get your head around and can be tweeked to your liking.
If you lack a little confidence with electronics, kits are a good direction to go in (most kits are good value to). Then once you feel up to the task have a go at building your own tube power amp from scratch.
Once you get hooked on tubes there’s no going back to solid state, I know I couldnt!!

p.s, a passive preamp would contain no active components such as tubes, these preamps are commonly just simple resistive volume attenuators.

Hesky