Upscale Audio and Primaluna

Any time you find a dealer or manufacturer who talks smack about competitors and/or what you own, you can't walk away fast enough.

There was a dealer nearby to me who had all manner of bad things to say about my then magnepan speakers while diligently trying to steer me to Focal. I never went into that store again.

Oz

Who puts 4500 hours on output tubes? That can't be right........

I've always replaced output tubes at the 2000-2500 hour mark. Could they go longer? Sure. But that's only if you are willing to live with the degradation in sound, because you will surely notice the improvement when you replace them. So it's a matter of how frugal you are vs how important the sound is to you. Tubes are just like us human beings. They start "dying" from the minute they start "living". And also just like us, the difference is subtle over time that we hardly notice it. But if you woke up tomorrow and were 20 again, I think you'd know.