Audible Illusions Modulus 3 Audio Research SP-11

"Counterpoint SA-5 and it was far beyond anything Audio
Research ever did."

This is total BS! I was one of the top Counterpoint dealers
in the country. While the SA-5.1 was an excellent preamp
and one of my all time favorites, this statement is crap.
Two totally different flavors of sound. Each had it's pros
and cons, but to have a blanket statement like this is
wrong.

I really liked what Frogman stated: "I think that this
thread proves, once again, that there is no substitute for
listening for oneself and that "better" for one
listener can be a totally different thing than for
another."

Sounds to me like you have already made your decision, so
just move on.

Say what?!

You could get the same quality with fimilar sound for much less!
The price tag does not qualify its quality!

"bubbled edges"

To me that says you've got a microphonic tube, to do a simple test (without an oscilloscope on a test bench).

Take the lid off turn on the whole system. Turn the volume control up around loud level.

Get someone to listen close at the speakers left and right. While you flick each tube with you finger nail.

If they hear a 'bonk" out of your speaker/s then this tube is getting microphonic.

If it is really bad then it can in the worst case start a continuous feed back bong happening, and you may have to turn the volume down to stop it.

Cheers George