PoppaC...you may have solved my problem! You see...I love my RC1090....it is a very good preamp but its SS. Not edgy but not tubes...know what I mean? I Thought about a tube buffer, but sorta decided against it. So are you telling me I can use a tubed preamp as sorta like a buffer runing through the tape outs of the tubed pre? Sounds good, but how would this be different from a dedicated buffer?