Building the Audio Note Kit 1 SET amp...

My Audionote Kageki came with the brown-base RCA 6sn7s. This is a warm, lush sounding tube. I tried numerous other types, and I ended up liking the Tungsol roundplates (and copies thereof, like French Neotrons). I really did not like the metal-based Sylvanias because they are lean sounding, but, something like the Sylvanias MAY be good in a 300B amp (something much more lush sounding than a 2a3 amp like the Kageki). Currently, the amp is on loan to a friend who recently tried CV 181s (old tubes, not Chinese, but I don't know what brand) in it and liked that tube best of all in the Kageki. I have not heard the combination myself. I believe the CV 181 is not exactly a drop in replacement and draws a bit more current so keep that in mind.

Certainly, decent power cords are must-have items in a system of this caliber. However, I would not go crazy with big buck spending on power cords for tube amplification--most tube gear seem to be not as sensitive to power cord changes as are solid state amplifiers/linestages. Where power cords seem to matter most in a tube-based system is with things like digital sources (DAC, music server, etc.).