@ Zd542, Hi, The subject of the tubes soldered in or not was with me, this was a few months back, I called audio visor, the very cheap entry level componets of vincent is soldered tubes, you remember, the tubes in the mid-level to top componets of vincent are tube sockets, really, I recall audio visor said two models only out of many models were soldered tubes, likly this vincent the op is talking about is socket tubes, I recommend the op to call audio visor, they are very nice, and will help with any questions, even if the sale is not theirs, If they do not know the answer, they will look into it, and you call them back, they will give you the answer to your question, my exsperience with the vincent equipment is very musical, warm, exspansive sound stage with bass slam, for the price of alot of vincent gear, they are giant killers!, meaning, they simply sound better than alot more exspensive gear out there, if you are looking for musicality, this is it, if you are looking for over resolving, steril sound, look else where.