I appreciate all the suggestions on tubes. Having build a few tube guitar amps and the Bottlehead Crack, I'm definitely sold on the technology. However, I've always thought that you have to spend way more than $1k to get a unit that does it "right".
...to help quantify the above -- In the guitar world there are loads of pedals and gear that have a single 12a*7 in a preamp section to warm up the sound; all while keeping the power section solid state. I'm sure it matters to some extent to the sound, but most of the magic of guitar tube sound comes from an over driven power section. The difference in pricepoint between the two different configurations are typically double or triple.
Anyway, I'm not sure how this translates to the HiFi world knowing that we all want clean / clear power for our listening. But when I see tube dacs for $500-$800 I'm skeptical.
Having said all of that, I'm *not* interested in an analytical presentation of music which perhaps is another vote for tubes (at a high level).
...to help quantify the above -- In the guitar world there are loads of pedals and gear that have a single 12a*7 in a preamp section to warm up the sound; all while keeping the power section solid state. I'm sure it matters to some extent to the sound, but most of the magic of guitar tube sound comes from an over driven power section. The difference in pricepoint between the two different configurations are typically double or triple.
Anyway, I'm not sure how this translates to the HiFi world knowing that we all want clean / clear power for our listening. But when I see tube dacs for $500-$800 I'm skeptical.
Having said all of that, I'm *not* interested in an analytical presentation of music which perhaps is another vote for tubes (at a high level).