Do tubes matter beyond gain stage on preamp?

Heavy…i was mostly joking…as you no doubt know vintage 240 prices are sky high…

I have my own not for profit museum…you probably have me beat…

https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/7106#&gid=1&pid=6

Enjoy retirement, i had to pick up some board work to stay out of trouble….

what i find interesting are the designers who are capable of working w both…. two come to mind … Vandersteen and Aesthetix..there are a lot more if we throw the use of FET as front end to tube phono stages, many many more….. 

@noromance yes! i have same neon and swap was meaningful, there are two “ hidden “ FET in my RS

Shall, I send it your way for the cold midwinter ?

Heavy - next time you find a MC240 for $1,100 buy it for me…..

of course, a lot of the magic are those lovely high bandwidth output transformers….

well, if i had a client with a tight budget, i would advise gain stage first….but in my experience they all matter eventually as ratchet up performance across the system.

Can hardly wait to get the tube power supply for my….wait for it….direct drive turntable….