Real world means long term reliability to me....I've used an updated Vendetta phono stage for fourteen years without a glitch.....It still measures 85dB S/N and does just fine in comparison to anything out there...I recall the Boulder measured 47db S/N in Stereophile so the Vendetta is quite a bit quieter.....These are available as an option in the Blowtorch preamplifier we custom build to order....The Connoisseur is similar to the Vendetta as it uses a similar (folded cascode) circuit and actually the same RIAA caps as we have them made at the same shop....Carl Thompson layed out the Vendetta boards and Conneisseur uses an open architecture to achieve similar results, namely increased open loop bandwidth by close proximity of the various parts....Lots of ways to get down the road, but if you want to have tubes in the circuit you might want to look at the service records of the various units available....We are very slow to fill orders and you might not have the luxury of waiting for a unit for six months as the Aesthetix, Lamm and others are "production" units as opposed to "built to order" units....
