I recently purchased a tube DAC linestage the stock tubes gave a good soundstage and detail. I replaced them with bugleboys and there was a big improvement. I then replaced those with 1950 vintage tubes and the soundstage then became enormous and the dynamics induced anxiety. I have a Accuphase C200 SS preamp that I am going to put back in the loop. As I remember the noise floor was extremely low and it will be intersting to AB the two.
Using a VAC 70/70 MKII which I find gives a totally black background and recently retubed with Sophia carbon plates. The super low noise floor shows defects in related equipment easily. If the Accuphase is as I remember and the upgrade (being done now) improves the noise floor the resulting combination should produce a stunning synergy.
My VAC is as good as it gets but on the pre amp side if the SS is better I would jump for joy as the quality of the smaller tubes produced now does not come close to older NOS tubes. A headache that I can do without.
Using a VAC 70/70 MKII which I find gives a totally black background and recently retubed with Sophia carbon plates. The super low noise floor shows defects in related equipment easily. If the Accuphase is as I remember and the upgrade (being done now) improves the noise floor the resulting combination should produce a stunning synergy.
My VAC is as good as it gets but on the pre amp side if the SS is better I would jump for joy as the quality of the smaller tubes produced now does not come close to older NOS tubes. A headache that I can do without.