What's the greatest bargain in SET these days?

Mikirob,
Listening to an eclectic mix of Holst, Peter Gabriel and Cheryl Crow this afternoon. Wow! You are just going to love the Kit 1 when your wife builds it. Trust me! ;-)

Saki,
I think I am sitting tight for the time being. I keep having these "huge grin moments" with old, familiar recordings sounding so much more enjoyable than they ever have in the past. I'm not talking about "I can hear the bass player cough at 5:23," neurotic audiophile moments, but a sense that I'm listening to "a performance." It's just hard to describe otherwise... as cliched as this sounds (forgive me) I'm enjoying music rather than listening to hi-fi. So the Kit 1 has elevated my De Capo's to a higher level and I'm really enjoying them, yes.
Now, does that mean I've totally conquered the audiophile "what if" reflex? No, I haven't.
If I had about $2000 to play with, I'd buy a pair of Omega Alnico monitors and a/b them with the De Capo's. Louis Chochos of Omega builds every one of those speakers by hand, including the hemp cone alnico drivers themselves, which are exclusive to Omega. They are said to transcend many of the "traditional" single-driver pitfalls, such as "shouty" Lowther/Fostex upper mids, and people on the Omega forum at AudioCircle say that they are simply extraordinary with SET amps. Unfortunately, $2K in mad money isn't there right now, and I am delighted enough with my De Capo/Kit 1 pairing not to mess with success by selling them just to try something new. Of course, the Tekton Lore 2.0 is also a possibility to experiment with when finances permit.

Mikirob: Thanks a lot for the kind words! When are you thinking of pulling the trigger on the Kit 1?

Roxy,
Thanks a lot for the tip! I can probably rustle up $46 for that tube and if you like it that much it seems worth a try. Thank you.
As for the 274 B, mine is a Chinese Psvane. When Brian sent it to me (some of the tubes for my kit had originally been backordered) he said it was "a nice little upgrade." It is certainly a sharp LOOKING tube and looks great between the choke transformer and the mains transformer. :-) I haven't done a lot of comparing of the sound of that tube to the 6SN7 that I have, but I can tell you that it is a much quieter tube then the Russian 6SN7 that shipped with my unit when Pete returned it from Florida. So that's a plus right there.

Roxy,
The Psvane 274B (which I just discovered by doing a little online research is a Chinese clone of an old Western electric tube) is not all that expensive, as these things go. I have seen it online for between $100 and $120, at the cheapest. Now, if you want to go for one of the Western Electric originals, those are going for around $1300 a pop. ;-)

Hi, Roxy,
Spoke to Andy at Vintage Tube today and ordered one of those slightly used RCA 6SN7's. I'll let you know the results. Thanks again for the tip!

Roxy,
I'll let everyone know how it sounds. What Andy emphasized the most was the RCA invented this tube and that these tubes from the 40's are much more robust and durable than the newer stuff being manufactured today. I think he said you could get "80,000 hours" out of a tube like this. :-)