HI.
So how does this huge preamp sound?
c-J
PS: it better sounds good considering the money you invested in it.
Umm...that statement inflects you think the OP paid too much for his/her satisfaction with a product that you are obviously not familiar with. Bold and trollish.
Hi.
I am not a tube virgin BUT I prefer SIMPLE & small given choice. Simple is beauty. 
I built the probably the SIMPLEST tube phonostage on earth todate - 1 single stage 1-tube stereo phonostage + passive linestage, driving direct my tube power amp.
It sounds suuuuperb since day one it was commissioned 2 years back. It does not sound shy at all when compared to a Swiss-made brandname tube phono-preamp tagged for USD24,900!! It costed me very very little money to build (discounting my man-hours of course.)
Simpler it is better is the music, my picky ears tell me so. I've proven it.
c-J
"When the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts" quoted Albert Einstein.
OK, now this post is just insulting.
You DIYed the best tube phono/passive line preamp in the world and since
you compared it to some nameless piece of gear that supposedly retails for north of $24K it has to be better than this Jeffery Jackson design. If you wanna threadcrap find some where else to do it. One more derogatory post and it goes in the bin.
And what the hell do you mean by the Einstein quote? What "facts" did you perceive to have changed? This is a cool thread about a tube newbie's first tube preamp and experiences with it (hopefully). It isn't about money and it isn't about audio snobbery. Just because happyrabbit has the resources to dive in to tubes in a manner that you see as exorbitant is no reason to diss his thread. You are on the watchlist, sport.
So it is written, so it shall be done!