Lets talk tubes in Pharaoh Integrated

Walter good for you. Always optimize the physical setup of what you have and in many cases that will eliminate the need to change gear. That means speaker placement and orientation maybe some simple room treatments isolating components to keep noise levels minimal etc. so many ways to tweak sound without spending a dime.

I disn't realize that you hade already rolled your tubes before I last posted. I am happy to hear the room acoustics played a big role. I am a tube roller so I also credit the tubes you tried. I should have asked what you really wanted to change most. I am primarily a tube roller employing old stock tubes, but do appreciate that recent production tubes are very good. Frankly, in retrospect, I am a little surprised the ECC802S didn't work for you in the first place.

Heard both Pharoah and Sphinx recently at my dealer. Both were the real deal at their price points.

Have never heard a bad demo of Rogue gear there over teh years. Rogue and ARC are his big amp lines. He said Pharoah was his favorite bar none. It is actually my original dealer's grandson, who is less of a pure classical/acoustic music fan than his pop, running the business these days.

I have a Rogue Pharaoh and it's the best amp I've owned to date. It totally embarrassed 11k worth of SS MacIntosh pre and power! The superb phono stage and headphone amp are icing on the cake for this excellent piece of gear. Highly recommended!'

I certainly love mine. I haven't had the to opportunity to compare it to much as this was mt first purchase of anything remotely hi-end. Thanks for all the comments, I may still try a different pair of tubes just to be sure it can't be better, Walter.