Haven't really done any (critical) listening yet. Letting it break-in with the supplied tubes. They are nothing special. Looking to get some NOS or new production Tungsol's at least. This thing can run in 3 different modes. Passive,JFET (solid state) and the tube mode. Fun times. Regards
Report back because Im highly interested. I wish the remote had power switch or at least a front panel on/off switch
onkyo p-308 for some duties i really don't need uber revealing components, i listen to mostly metal. don't need the ET-3 or a megabuck tube thingy. (would be nice if i had one) the ol onkyo p-308 sounds great with metal, it adds a bit of heft to the music.
Tubes require virtually no maintenance other than replacing tubes periodically. All gear eventually needs to be refreshed, e.g., capacitors, whether tube or solid state if you are dealing with something old; I've been using tube preamps/line stages since the early to mid-70's- my first really "good" one was an ARC SP-3-a-1 that I bought new, circa 1974-5. Had a few since then, including later ARC (SP-10 mk ii- glorious, the height of the old school ARC tube designs); Lamm L2 Reference- solid state audio path, tube power supply (couldn't really say it sounded "tubey" though it was dark, rich, phenomenal midrange). Currently use a Veloce Lithio (it runs off lithium batteries) with real DK Reflektor 6H30s- not so easy to find those tubes these days. The manufacturer, a small outfit in Pa that had rave reviews several years ago, is now not flavor of the month, and below the radar but still supports his products- he updated the batteries this year to a new, much smaller set up--I keep a heavy slab of acrylic on the top so you can see his work. It's part NASA and part vintage, with a little Tesla thrown in; wonderful sound. Current phono stage is an Allnic H3000 with a variety of rectifier tubes- I don't roll the small tubes on this. It gels well in my system, lot's of spatial information, some find it "rounded" but I don't like analytical sound. The nuances in the dynamics of individual instruments are clearly articulated with an uncanny sense of placement. Not euphonic sounding. Vintage- MX110z for my vintage system, recently restored by Bill Thalmann- sounds fab with my vintage Quad tube amps and restored ESLs.
I have an older Peachtree iNova with a class-A preamp section. The iNova has a Excellent Saber DAC as well. I don't use the power amp section, I use external power amplifier's from different manufacturer's, which work better for my applications. I do have a nice but simple 6SN7 powered tube preamp, it is connected to the line-out section of the iNova for digital music. Don't be so quick to dis your preamp, Peactree makes a nice internal preamp section.
