The Vision split passive EQ solid state preamp, with a few final design improvements turned out to be better then the best tube phono section we have yet done. It is quieter, more dynamic, more transparent, takes one hell of a lot less real estate, and is way less expensive, even after we switched to all OPA627 devices in it (a hundred dollars worth of active devices not including the LME49600 output buffers). There are over 300 hand done solder connections on the audio board alone.
Of course we save a few dollars on capacitors - - - there are none in the direct signal path at all, no $200 Russian beeswax uranium coated capacitors left over from WW2 and no $100 fuses in it either.
Price to performance ratio, it is a steal.
Frank