I'M NOT AN EXPERT ON TUBES, per se...I really wish I had the silver bullet for your problem, but without hearing how "severe" the rush is, it's hard to say if anything is actually acting up, or not. Do you hear anything power supply related along with the rush, or is it just a "creamy" and smooth sounding tube "whoosh"? ONE THING I WILL SAY IS THAT PHONO STAGES ARE A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ANIMAL FROM A LINE STAGE. The solid state phono stages I've had HAVE ALL HAD TRANSISTOR RUSH (louder than I preferred), because let's face it, the thing IS an equalizer (to get the required reverse RIAA curve). THERE ARE ONLY A FEW TRUELY QUIET PHONO STAGES THAT I KNOW OF, and they're all solid state (and I can't afford one of them right now)...most of the ss ones are noticeably noisy, I can't imagine a "quiet" tube one. ANYWAY...if you've isolated the anomaly to the phono stage, then it must lie with it somehow. HOW MUCH GAIN DO YOU HAVE IT SET FOR? ONE MORE THING: What you definitely don't need to do here is use cheap-assed CD players as an excuse to give up on digital altogether. It's just not healthy. I REALIZE YOU'RE FOCUSING ON VINYL RIGHT NOW...so am I (about to install another Benz cart), but CD's should be part of everybody's listening experience, because they allow you to hear music when time is short. BTW, a dealer once claimed to know Michael Fremer's personal e-mail address, but said he had forgotten it. Said he'd get back in touch with me if he remembered it. I said thanks, but I wouldn't hold my breath...I doubt he can ever even keep an e-mail address more than a day or two...
