Thanks for the review; I envy you guys playing with all that cool stuff! I've always used amps that could jump start your car or arc weld the frame, and haven't owned tube gear except for antique radios. I've been able to listen to modern hi-fi triode amps with π's, but haven't "lived with them" up to now. And my experience is that you can't really properly evaluate a product until you've had it for quite some time and made its use a habit. It's like building a relationship, in a way. So my experience with tubes is actually quite limited, and amounts to fixing old tube radios and light engineering work with Spice.But I'm hot on your trail - Dan sent my Paramour kits today! Now I get a taste of the other side of the spectrum. So I'll be building the amps perfectly stock and bringing them to Lima with me. If I start doing the popular mods, it will be to another amp because I want to have samples of popular SET amps that are stock, so that it is an accurate representation of Bottlehead offerings. I'd also like to have some of Brian Cherry's Consonance amps, or whatever they are called after the rename.
I hope to hear a representation of some other amps at Lima, and I think it's reasonable to assume I'll get that chance. :-)
Are you going to make it? Grab the gang and come on, if you can!