Mariusz, I'm not playing a game. I payed just under $300 for a Holland GZ34 rectifier. I've seen 300Bs for many times more and I've seen GZ34s as high as $700+. If you've got an intergrated amp with several tubes and you're going for the best sound possible, as I assumed, then $1500 is not much.
I spent over $9000 for my SS, integrated, including the phono-stage. Without looking back at my example, I think it only came to $5000, so I wasn't implying that $1500 was a ton of money. (I spent that on 3 ICs this week!!). You seem shocked that someone would spend that kind of money, but I thought that I was offering a real world example.
Let me give another example. I bought the Woo Audio WA6 for around $600 new. The NOS rectifier was $250 and if I replaced the power tubes with comparable, highest quality tubes, I'd spend another $200. That doesn't quite double the investment, but it gets it close.
My point is, once again, being able to tube roll is NOT an automatic advantage to owning tube equipment, UNLESS you enjoy doing that kind of thing. I think there are at least as many equipment owners that would rather not have to do such things to maximize the performance of their rigs.
Dave
I spent over $9000 for my SS, integrated, including the phono-stage. Without looking back at my example, I think it only came to $5000, so I wasn't implying that $1500 was a ton of money. (I spent that on 3 ICs this week!!). You seem shocked that someone would spend that kind of money, but I thought that I was offering a real world example.
Let me give another example. I bought the Woo Audio WA6 for around $600 new. The NOS rectifier was $250 and if I replaced the power tubes with comparable, highest quality tubes, I'd spend another $200. That doesn't quite double the investment, but it gets it close.
My point is, once again, being able to tube roll is NOT an automatic advantage to owning tube equipment, UNLESS you enjoy doing that kind of thing. I think there are at least as many equipment owners that would rather not have to do such things to maximize the performance of their rigs.
Dave