Speaking of the holidays, I'm going from a surprising good little NAD PP2i to a Ear 834P. I found the sound from the NAD using a Denon 103R/TNT MkI to be decent but lacking the "spirit" and low end response which I could hear using an Lazarus preamp. Of course the Lazarus was not MC compatible w/low gain and noise, (though it was a cascode amp with two 12AT7 and two 12AX7). This move should provide a decent MC tube preamp experience with the noted front end. I do like the sound from FETs amp circuits (low noise/great dynamics), and believe I will be headed to some type of SUT/FET/tube preamp setup, but hope the EAR will hold my interest for a little while. It great to get back into vinyl!