Progress report:
The RS7F's have 50+ hours now. Last night I switched back in the RS7A's. What I feared turned out to be true; the "liveliness" of the 7F's ended up feeling a bit hard on my ears. Listening to the 7A's, I turned a corner. Much easier on the ears and they do in fact have more of that "texture" quality and what I would call, "finesse". I will probably do one more switch back in a week to make double sure. But if the 7F's don't sound better to me on the next switch, I will put them on the market and consider my Super 7 XRS with alnico's the final product.
Not to get too hyperbolic (I think that's close to an oxymoron), but listening last night was one of those rare times of letting go of the pursuit and saying to myself, "if changes stopped here, I would be very happy". But changes do not stop here.
Time for some tube rolling in my Dennis Had Inspire KT150 amp. Without needing to bias, I can roll among KT150 power tubes (what it came with) and 6550, KT120, KT90, KT88, EL34, 6L6, 6V6, on and on. I have several of these to start with. Fortunately, this single ended amp only requires a pair of power tubes, so much less expensive to roll with than push pull amps that use four or more. Power decreases with other tubes.
Here are my possibilities:
* 5 watts per channel output with 6V6 output tubes and 5Y3 rectifier tube
* 7 watts per channel with 6L6, KT66, 5881 output tubes and 5U4 rectifier tube
* 10 watts output with KT88, EL34, 6550, KT99, KT120, KT150 output tubes with 5U4, 274B rectifier tube
* 12 watts output with KT-88, KT-120 or KT150 output tubes and 5AR4 rectifier tube
I love this amp and the LP-2 pre that matches it. I'm heading towards loving the Omegas just as much. My wife is jealous that I feel affection towards these pieces. (NB: I do consider myself an audiophile, but not an audiophiliac despite these feelings of affection!
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. .........Peter