I’ll share a “real world” assessment of a modern solid-state amp vs. Here’s a pic of my TV room system: The amp on the 3rd shelf (right) is an NAD C375BEE.I bought it 5 years ago for 9 shipping - excellent condition, already electronically restored.Well, it's taken the better part of a year to get this little amp up and singing again. The crown jewel in my collection is my Sony TA-F6B, which I bought as a parts unit and brought it back to life and into spec over roughly the same timeline (one year~ish) but with many, many more hours of troubleshooting and repair in that piece. There was a lot of pitting--to do it right I should've popped out all the rivets and polished it up, then installed the new sockets that I have, but I just don't have that kinda time to trace the installed circuit (not always the same as the schematics! The different from Sovtek 12AX7 tubes to GE black-plate-triple-mica 5751, to Matsushita (Mullard) 12AX7 tubes was Well, it's taken the better part of a year to get this little amp up and singing again. i admire your patience as i'd never go to that extreme on a restoration. I was running it with Matsushita Mullard tubes in there before, switched over to a set of weak-testing smooth-plate Teles, and I've yet to try the ribbed Teles.I bought 'er as a 'project amp' for my birthday last March and during the winter break from school I finally got 'er done! I am happy with how it sounds and the imaging gives me goosebumps every time I fire it up, but now with school picking up steam, the time I have to listen is shorter and the periods are fewer and far between. I have a 399 Stereomaster receiver that sounds superb. I bought 'er as a 'project amp' for my birthday last March and during the winter break from school I finally got 'er done! when i saw 1kv k40 caps the first thing i thought was "i wonder if he got those caps from fragger"? So, this isn't a stock unit--I modded it (with the guidance of Craig at NOS Valves) to use the biasing scheme from the 299 amp, and what this lets me do is to use a 'close-enough' quad, then dial in each pair of tubes individually and get them all up to the correct bias point.Specifications: Power Output (Standard comes with EL-34 Match-Q.
In fact, it had gotten to the point where I was the lone solid-state holdout among all my vinyl-loving audiophile friends. Since my Koetsu cartridge was still in Japan getting retipped when the 299B first arrived, all of my listening was on CD (and my XM Skyfi tuner).If you can afford a pair of Mc Intosh MC30s, you’ll have an investment that will undoubtedly appreciate in value, and can be handed down to future generations. " -Seth Frank, Owner of Sound Stage Direct Original created Harry Weisfeld long time family friend Steve Leung (VAS) collaborated together to bring back one of their favorites, the Scott 299D integrated amp.I’ve had numerous guests comment that they’ve never heard sound as good as my two 1950’s Pilot mono amps - 5 x 2 = 0.(Purchased 4 years ago.) Of course you can spend more on tube gear.