Thinking about buying a different tube preamp...

The SLP-98P is very nice. Only downside is that it uses 6SN7 tubes so tube-rolling will be expensive and difficult. I have 13,000 vintage 12AU7's and maybe 500 6SN7. They are about gone in the world of NOS. But the stock Chinese 6SN7 sound great.

If you can find a PrimaLuna DiaLogue Three that would rock. They rarely come up used. But from the standpoint of build and sound it will compete with the most expensive out there regardless of cost and it has only 10dB of gain using 12AU7's.

The Manley Chinook is the best phono stage I know of for under $3500. It sells new for $2250 (going up to $2400) and there was a dude selling a used one for $1799 I think if you look. If you shop hard for those two it may barely meet your budget.

Many vintage 6SN7's from companies like Ken Rad, Brimar, and those silly metal base Sylvanias are microphonic. It's going to be very tough to get low microphony quality ones as we move down the road. The regular Shuguang 6SN7 sounds fine to me. The Russian ones are more durable. I cast a suspicious eye on some current production tubes that are being priced so high. I'm not sure how to reconcile the increase in price.

My inventory of vintage 12AU7's from Mullard, Brimar, Siemens, etc is about 13,000 pieces. My 6SN7 inventory that is TRUE low noise low microphony is about 500 pieces.

The reason is that most stocks of vintage NOS tubes comes from ex-military goods and 12AU7's were used extensively.

The GE 6SN7 is fabulous as it had helically wound filaments and is very low in hum. Great tube. And they test well.

Northern Electric tubes, huh? That name is owned by the Tubestore. Check the trademark office.

http://www.trademarkia.com/northern-electric-85198680.html

If somebody wants to tell me how they are any different than another Chinese tube, I'm all ears.

PS I like some Chinese tubes.