Hey Shane! I'm pretty happy with the PH7, so no near term changes planned - glad it had enough gain for you. Its not that the Xono is bad - its got verve, air, and is quite flexible - just that the PH7 is better in most areas. I think the latest round of top-tier components from ARC (eg, Ref3, PH7) is a bit of a break-through for them. I expected one thing from the PH7, but got another and was quite pleasantly surprised.
WRT the TEA1 (Triode Equalization Amplifier)... I don't know much. The unit may not officially be released. Sometimes Brent gets his hand on stuff early in the pipeline, so my question was something of a teaser. I believe the TEA1 is CJs latest take on state-of-the-art in phonostages and preliminary info sez: zero feedback, two tube gain stages, two inputs, $10k price tag. Don't know if it has any FETs, etc. I *may* get my hands on one later this year for review.
We now return you to your ACT2 thread. :-)
Cheers,
Tim