Atma-Sphere MA-1 amps

Hello Tom,

HH sure does. I am glad you agree. Thank you for your additional information. I'll go an researching. I suspect, my Wavac phono pre kindly glosses over the shortcomings you mentioned, without being euphonic though, as was the case with the old Jadis gear I once owned, because today I had the occasion to try out a Boulder 2008 phono pre amp and heard exactly what you did, fiddling wildly with the VTA of my cart with no avail. But then it may be the cable between cart and Boulder not yet broken in. We'll see, but you may very well have a point, because the Sound Labs should be no less revealing than the Avalons from what I have heard. We'll see, respective hear, after all this is a work in progress.
Cheers,
Detlof

A question for NOS tube users - Howoftendoyou change 6SN7s? I have a set coming this week. I'm just wondering if I'm starting a very expensive and unsustainable habit.

Which 6SN7's do you guys use?

I mix RCA GTA Grey glass with Sylvania GTBs. Some argue that mixing is a good approach.

I use Sylvania GTBs with matched pairs in the two postions A-S recommend matching. The straight Sylvania lineup is a good match to my Aesthetix preamp. With a different preamp, some other mix might be better. The Sylvanias were a nice improvement in resolution, openness and timbre to the JAN Philips that I had once upon a time. Life expectancy on these is in multiple years of heavy service.
.