@Super390: Wow, a real post! I guess I invited the jokes with the title of the thread...
Well, I can ultimately provide measurements, one way or another, and all but 4 of them are in original boxes. One of these years, I'll give it a shot, since the restocking fee for one order would have been the price of one of the tubes and most others couldn't be returned, as it turned out. I had looked at the insane price-rise in AT7s since 2010, and wondered if it was going to keep going up. People on this thread, who have much more experience, seem to be implying it has plateaued, at least in the nearish term. Not a big deal: I'll get something back. And, there's always the Crhistmas tree.
Your great deal on tubes sounds like what people were saying about 5695s in the Dared, another computer 12AT7 equivalent that obviously (from the prices) hasn't caught on yet. I read that these uber-expensive Tungsram e80cc were flip-flop logic tubes, too (sounds like political tubes!) so they might even sound the same. As my "experiment" with tubes, I figured the only way for me to really judge would be to get the ones that "everyone" had said they liked the best, and call it an educational expense. Total cost of a set of 3 tubes I was using at the last, though, was the same as yours ...only with a 0 at the end.
As you experienced, the Dared is too much gain. Largely for fun and curiosity, I bought it to put it in front of a Parasound Zamp v3, which has a sensitivity of .6V and my DAC puts out 2V! 9:00 syndrome and hard to gain stage (lower-gain tubes in a preamp won't do all that much to change this, I've read, even if they worked). Sounded fairly non-detrimental and noticeably tuby anyway, though, so still thinking about it. It was the only piece of gear my GF has actually ever noticed, sitting down to put her nose practically on the volume knob. "It's pretty!" she said, gazing into the glow. Definite first. I don't think she wanted me to return it, though she couldn't give a crap about the sound.
