Thanks for the responses. Until three weeks ago, I hadn't seen a vacuum tube since I was a ham radio operator 30 years ago as a kid. So, learning from scratch. Consensus seems to be that I'm not likely to recoup my investment easily. There's a guy down the way who repairs tube gear, so I might pay him to run a tester on the tubes if I try to sell them. Some have test results provided.
@lostbears: It's a Dared SL-2000a, which I know several folks around here have owned--the reason I got it. I bought all the tubes the cool kids were using, including Brimar 5v4g, Brimar 4033s--the "blemished" white box with TubeMonger bases--plus TUngshram e80cc NIB that I haven't opened yet, as well as an RCA rectifier and Sylvania grey plate triple micas. Like everyone said a few years back, the preamp is good gear "with the right tubes." The soundstage enhancement it offered was much more noticeable on a traditional solid state amp than it was on my class D. In fact, the all-Brimar complement brought the AB amp so close to the Abletec/Tripath sound, only a bit better, that it put me on the fence about whether the investment and added system complexity was worthwhile for me. I like it, but don't really miss it, given my other equipment.
Frugality seldom wins out in my audio system, so I think we all can guess what I will end up doing. But I'll see if I'm still in the return window on the tubes that weren't ideal in my system, however. Thanks again for the feedback.
@lostbears: It's a Dared SL-2000a, which I know several folks around here have owned--the reason I got it. I bought all the tubes the cool kids were using, including Brimar 5v4g, Brimar 4033s--the "blemished" white box with TubeMonger bases--plus TUngshram e80cc NIB that I haven't opened yet, as well as an RCA rectifier and Sylvania grey plate triple micas. Like everyone said a few years back, the preamp is good gear "with the right tubes." The soundstage enhancement it offered was much more noticeable on a traditional solid state amp than it was on my class D. In fact, the all-Brimar complement brought the AB amp so close to the Abletec/Tripath sound, only a bit better, that it put me on the fence about whether the investment and added system complexity was worthwhile for me. I like it, but don't really miss it, given my other equipment.
Frugality seldom wins out in my audio system, so I think we all can guess what I will end up doing. But I'll see if I'm still in the return window on the tubes that weren't ideal in my system, however. Thanks again for the feedback.