tube preamp for JBL vintage speakers

What do you think is the best tube preamp for JBL Olympus?
I'm thinking of Mcintosh C20 or Audio Research SP8.
Any other vintage tube preamp recommendation?
Any opinion appreciated. Thanks.

Do you own both of those preamps, or are you shopping? Why is your question focused on those two?

Unless the C20 has been rebuilt, it is probably not performing very much like it originally did, and if rebuilt it may not be very much like the original sound either, depending on how that was done, so in that sense it is impossible to know what you are actually dealing with.

All that having been said, the SP8 is a more modern, cooler preamp. It is at least 20 years newer and made with better parts. Even at its own considerable age it is probably more accurate than the C20 ever was, but in my experience does not have the emotional density or the occasional flashes of nostalgia the C20 can muster at times.

My examples of those two preamps have been parked in favor of the Conrad-Johnson PV-9. My C20 needs to be rebuilt, and, because of age, I think, has become as warm and cozy as a flannel pillow. It might be the perfect balance for aged diaphragms and a 375 mounted on an H93, but perhaps your speakers have been gone through. It was not easy setting aside the SP8 for the PV-9 because the former has better bass, but the midrange of the latter is very, very good, and I have been careful to couple it with very good woofers driven directly by good solid state amps. I really couldn't recommend the PV-9. Today you would have to pay a lot more for it than I did, and as beryllium-worthy electronics it would be a waste to use it recreating '60's sound.

So I guess the choice would be to get a C20 or similar and have it rebuilt by someone who would keep it as close as possible to the original voicing. I keep mine, thinking that I will have that done just to see what it would be like, but I probably won't.

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Originally Posted by speakerdave

Do you own both of those preamps, or are you shopping? Why is your question focused on those two?

Unless the C20 has been rebuilt, it is probably not performing very much like it originally did, and if rebuilt it may not be very much like the original sound either, depending on how that was done, so in that sense it is impossible to know what you are actually dealing with.

All that having been said, the SP8 is a more modern, cooler preamp. It is at least 20 years newer and made with better parts. Even at its own considerable age it is probably more accurate than the C20 ever was, but in my experience does not have the emotional density or the occasional flashes of nostalgia the C20 can muster at times.

My examples of those two preamps have been parked in favor of the Conrad-Johnson PV-9. My C20 needs to be rebuilt, and, because of age, I think, has become as warm and cozy as a flannel pillow. It might be the perfect balance for aged diaphragms and a 375 mounted on an H93, but perhaps your speakers have been gone through. It was not easy setting aside the SP8 for the PV-9 because the former has better bass, but the midrange of the latter is very, very good, and I have been careful to couple it with very good woofers driven directly by good solid state amps. I really couldn't recommend the PV-9. Today you would have to pay a lot more for it than I did, and as beryllium-worthy electronics it would be a waste to use it recreating '60's sound.

So I guess the choice would be to get a C20 or similar and have it rebuilt by someone who would keep it as close as possible to the original voicing. I keep mine, thinking that I will have that done just to see what it would be like, but I probably won't.

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Thanks for your detailed and kind explanation and sharing your observation. Actually I'm shopping at the moment.
As I have McIntosh MC240 to drive C50 Olympus, I've been looking for its right tube match, which I feel is C20.
Given the choice of "original" and modern sound, I'd rather choose the former.
I see some C20 in original condition still sound very good despite the aging parts.