budget diy tube preamp beating many expensive preamps... problem with my system?

@carlsbad2 you called it

I will eventually get better cables. Tbh the Amazon rca cables I have seem better built than my custom tedd allen cables.

@invalid what would be an upgrade from this then

Wow so the problem was my power. I had a waudio power brick. My buddy let me borrow the puritan psm 156 and the system sounds incredible now! ET5 is far superior and the system sounds so transparent, tonally nuanced, dynamic and just beautiful. This was with the upgraded power cable.

My friend told me to optimize my power first before comparing gear.. he was right. Jeeez !!!

@dekay none just stock 

Interesting. But Puritan was the key. Et5 sounding beautiful.

@jackd you mean for rca upgrade ?

@shkong78 did you try any other power products? My other buddy going to loan me a reference 20i Furman to compare