For what it is worth, my Doge 8 is beginning to really break in, thought I'd post a couple observations in case anyone is interested. First of all, I have to be honest and say that the NOS tubes recommended and sold to me by Pacific Valve didn't blow my hair back and in fact I actually preferred the stock Chinese tubes that come with the unit. They gladly took the NOS Jan Phillips tubes back and kindly refunded my money. All in all, Pacific Valve has been very good to deal with and Vic knows his stuff. I enjoy reading his opinions and musings. I replaced the stock tubes with NOS Matsushitas in both the line and phono sections, those purchased from Andy Bouwman of Vintage Tube Services. Andy has never sold me anything but excellent tubes, every time. After listening now for several weeks my opinion is that the Doge 8 needs break-in time. It is a little bright sounding to begin with. Now, with break-in, it has settled in nicely. The highs are still there, as clear as gin, but without the edginess most of us try to eliminate from our systems. This unit has unreal frequency extremes; the bass is just excellent, really deep and taut, very musical. Vic refers to the midrange as "lacking the usual midrange muddiness associated with most tube pre-amps" and he is exactly right. This thing is so open it is incredible, I've never heard anything like it. There is NO veil, it is completely transparent sounding while retaining musicality and rhythm. Cohesive from top to bottom with the clearest midrange I've ever heard. It "sounds" like an open window into the music. This observation refers to both the phono and line stages of the unit. This thing is really worth a try, given the price it is a great value.
