Ok my short story...
Started out with a cheap tube integrated, then discovered solid state & couldn't be happier. The hum noise hiss pop & crackle of tubes was never missed one bit. Stuck with SS through several iterations of my rig until I finally decided to try to discover what all the raves about the better tube equipment were about? Auditioned Sonic Frontiers, VTL, & Golden Tube; couldn't stand any of it. Thought a Cary might work better but it was even worse; the microphonics were just awful. Every time that the input selector was switched, it went 'boiiiing'. You could tap on the rack & hear it in the speakers even at nominal voume settings.
I'm glad that y'all love your tubes & I'm not trying to talk anyone out of them, just not my cup of tea. I've always thought that my Luxman Ultimate SS series was the holy grail, but have since discovered that Accuphase even betters the Lux. Bluesawn if you ever decide to part with that P450 then definitely get in touch with me by all means!
Started out with a cheap tube integrated, then discovered solid state & couldn't be happier. The hum noise hiss pop & crackle of tubes was never missed one bit. Stuck with SS through several iterations of my rig until I finally decided to try to discover what all the raves about the better tube equipment were about? Auditioned Sonic Frontiers, VTL, & Golden Tube; couldn't stand any of it. Thought a Cary might work better but it was even worse; the microphonics were just awful. Every time that the input selector was switched, it went 'boiiiing'. You could tap on the rack & hear it in the speakers even at nominal voume settings.
I'm glad that y'all love your tubes & I'm not trying to talk anyone out of them, just not my cup of tea. I've always thought that my Luxman Ultimate SS series was the holy grail, but have since discovered that Accuphase even betters the Lux. Bluesawn if you ever decide to part with that P450 then definitely get in touch with me by all means!