If anyone is still looking for a SLP-98

Funny. I looked for a good while and each time I found one, it would be gone by the time I tried to buy it. Maybe you remember that I settled on the Aesthetix Calypso Signature. Got it home, used it for a couple listening sessions. It did a nice job for listening to CD's. I'd never had tubes in line for CD listening before so that was kind of nice. I did not really get to appreciate it so much for vinyl as I was having problems with a weak tube in my Cary phono preamp as well as trouble with the turntable I was using. In the meantime, the Calypso started having a problem. LED's were dim and almost no sound. I found a loose RCA cap on the back, maybe all there was to it but I talked with TMR about it and they suggested to just send it back to them for repair and evaluation. It made me kind of nervous about it and I decided to just trade it for a Linn LP12 that they had. Waiting for that to arrive. Only took me 50 years to get one. I hope I like it.

At the same time, I found a Cary SLP 98P F1 in Jaguar red. It has several upgrades, including Lundahl phono input for LOMC, Hexfred recifiers, is direct coupled (supposed to help a lot) and has oil filled caps I don't know what all that means but I know that the upgrades are considered to be important. It also has a new compliment of tubes with only a few hours on them, not burned in yet. I may be looking to vintage tubes as these are all new types and I probably won't like them. 

@billpete what tubes did your 98P F1 come with?

Hey, before spending more on tubes, it’s worth opening the bottom, taking a photo of which oil filled caps are in it. Are they gold color Jensen or Jupiter, or something else. The sound changes notably with different coupling caps, or different 6SN7s, and different interconnects can impact the sound. Depending which way you want to go, softer/smoother, or more detailed and more open, we can help steer you on cap changes to fwiw. A local tech can swap caps pretty easy later if necessary.  

Once we know the tubes and caps, you can also try different 6SN7s up front which can go in either direction as well.

I believe I was told Jensen caps. The tubes are EH 6SN7, I think 2 are gold and two are not. AU's and AX's are JJ. Probably not what I want to hear. I have quite a lot of vintage AU's and AX's and variants that will be better than JJ's. I've never had or heard JJ's but what I read isn't so great. This is only the phono side I think so might not really affect me too much since I use the Cary PH301 phono pre. I just thought it was a fair option to have the P version, especially with the Lundahl MC upgrade. If the PH301 ever goes down or is off for repair, I still have a phono section that I might care to use. I have others in other preamps, they just don't do what I want. 

As to a local tech, probably nothing within less than 3 hours of where I live. My son does some of this but he is amateur at best. I have done a little too but this stuff makes me a bit nervous. We'll see what I find when I get the preamp. Thanks for all.

I don't know how good the EH tubes are. Never had or heard any of them either. I'm sure I'll be looking for vintage tubes at some point.