Hi Frank, I went early in day 1 of the show and saw the guy from Audio Space brought their KT88 version of R3.1 to try with the VR-4; great clarity and more pace and punch, but without the magic in the mids from 300B's. It's easy to get more bass out of solid-state backends, just not sure how it would perform better than what 300B can give you in the mids, which is my sweet spot, and most of other's too. That's why VS stayed with the 300Bs I think. I was a bit disppointed though that the VS room didn't have analog source to show the tubed phono section of the R3.1. Definitely want to listen to the hybrid to see what it is all about. Do you know when it's out? You must have missed the AS sign in VS's room; it said $3900. And I looked it up from AS's site, 300B is $3900, KT88 is cheaper.
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