I agree totally on the tube rolling, I did that and could not believe the difference it made..... How they can demo these amps in the showrooms with the stock tubes is beyond me..... Now I once hooked up a cd player directly to the amp in section bypassing the preamp section and that sounded better, tighter, focused and more real,
as far my source it's weak. I sold my Basis TT to buy a Linn which I have not acquired and I'm using a cheap ES sony sacd player, it gets me by..... I've been saving up for speakers too, my old Thiels are a complete miss match for the Mac, but I have tried easy to drive monitors and still get too much of a laid back sound but I will say for Classical music it's been amazing.
as far my source it's weak. I sold my Basis TT to buy a Linn which I have not acquired and I'm using a cheap ES sony sacd player, it gets me by..... I've been saving up for speakers too, my old Thiels are a complete miss match for the Mac, but I have tried easy to drive monitors and still get too much of a laid back sound but I will say for Classical music it's been amazing.