What's the greatest bargain in SET these days?

Brownsfan, Charles,
After the new house is finished (late spring) the first purchase I'm going to make is the franks. Between now and then l'll be having fun with the Dynamo. The Mullard is superb as it stands, but I likely will try some other rectifiers. The NOS Phillips 5R4GYS I firmly believe will substitute/perform wonderfully in some other compatible amp. A bargain at $65 from Upscale. Has anyone used KCA tubes? They seem to have a good supply of NOS RFT Siemens. According to Tim Smith, in his system the Siemens provided a "fatter, warmer sound". My only concern now is, how am I going to get any work done? I keep spacing out on the music.

Charles, Last night's session included Schubert's Auf dem Storm for tenor, piano, and French horn. It just blew me away. I finally have a system that gets French horns right. I hope you are able to find a good pair and they work as well for you. You just never know what is going to happen with ebay on NOS tubes.

That Coincident definitely looks like a winner.

JMCgrogan,

I've never had a device with variable feedback.

You indicated the changes affecting bass and detail.

Could the detail be associated with more relative brightness?

I notice with certain good quality headphones that tend towards less of a low end that things sound a lot different in the midrange. I hear things I might not have focused on otherwise, but I am hard pressed to say that they are not there otherwise. ITs more like a different perspective on the music where different things become more prominent, more of a difference in what is emphasized I think, but the result of more emphasis in the midrange might often be perceived as more detail since that is where most music happens.

Then there is the whole bad harmonics rap on NF. I understand this in theory but have difficulty pinpointing it in practice. IT just does not seem to be a big issue to me if the gear is designed well.

I'd like to have adjustable NF in order to experiment more but don't, so I guess I am just looking for the impressions of others in this regard.

Thanks.

Bill,
Your French horn litmus test is analogous to mine with the trumpet. I grew up playing this instrument and know its sound well. Some components/systems are better than others in approaching the authentic sound. Some components purported to be "accurate" can't reproduce the inherent warmth and full body of instruments(their interpretation is lean and thread bare, lacking the natural color IMO). Given your love of acoustic classical music, tone and timbre are mandatory for satisfactory enjoyment. I'm in the same boat with acoustic jazz music.
Charles,