Off course. My thoriated tungsten DHT ship was, on these loads and for my taste. Of course the latter is of no concern. Good reviews aren't about a writer's likes. They should describe the effect the subject had on pre-existing sonics. What changed? Let's rewind. These ivory-coloured 6-inch Satori midranges don't see the usual restorative assist from trapped air in a box acting like a spring. Neither are they specifically made for dipole use to feature stiffer surround/spider compensation. As such they are small current hogs. Higher damping from lower output impedance adds control for more precise braking. Think and hear higher resolution from reduced overhang. Two, dipole dispersion from below 300Hz up to beyond audibility deliberately energizes my room's ambient field unlike classic direct radiators. These hybrid dipoles' tonality fleshes out naturally as a function of acoustic reverb. Now octave-doubled 2nd-harmonic distortion from a no-feedback single-ended triode steers deeper in the very same direction. As such Neptune sounded decidedly thicker, slower and less separated. Then the treble rolled off demonstrably vs our usual 2.5MHz direct-coupled class AB push/pull amps with their more 3rd-harmonic dominant THD. A curtailed top end imbued the colour palette with a more burnished patina and clearly sweeter more humid feel.

Jump factor, microdynamic responsiveness, transparency, brilliance, urgency, speed and timing relaxed or softened. Meatiness, density, saturation, heaviness and diffusiveness all grew. More curves, less speed. Late afternoon not early-morning sun. Cappuccino not ristretto. On the SET topic such words or images are in heavy rotation. Hence they're doomed to feel derivative. They're simply no less true or accurate. If this is how one wants to season one's sound, no DSD DAC I know goes remotely as far. Even a transistor-based single-ended amp from the FirstWatt catalogue stops short. It'll be similar but still feel like a lighter version. If we revisit relevance—has a legacy-tech amp like this ongoing raison d'être—I'd answer in the affirmative. Whilst one could attempt to clone the effect by other means, I don't think they'd arrive us in the same place. That includes S.P.E.C. of Japan whose class D amps are deliberately tuned to follow SET precedents.

Despite this page's lead-in, I found myself ill habituated to enjoy Neptune's sonic course correction. It reminded me of exactly why I'd given up on using direct-heated triodes for speaker drive very many years ago. In preamps they drive an amp's fixed high input impedance not a reactive load of back EMF and highly variable impedance. In headphone amps, they see rather linear high-impedance loads without xovers. Now things can change significantly. Answering my earlier question, there's more to optimal SET performance than easily going louder than we'd ever want. To not unfairly critique Neptune for being itself in less than ideal circumstances, I thus quickly moved Qualio's IQ out. Again, this was not because 19 watts proved insufficient. Tonal/textural balance shifts, looser driver control and resultant losses in resolution and transparency were my key deciders.

Right off I heard that Nenuphar v2 would be a very different game indeed. I just had to get past the hum which now telegraphed louder in the seat and would frankly be uncouth at €500. At €20K I doubt anyone considers it part of the deal. To insure that it wasn't a low-level ground loop from the active xover linking Neptune and Gold Note monos, I wired the 6m interconnects from the DAC straight into Neptune. No difference. The hum was hear to stay. Compared to the big sub handling sub 100Hz, I also suffered an overripe bass balance on amplitude; and sloppier stoppage in time. So I reverted to my usual stereo 2.1 setup and determined to overlook the hum. Most people doing vinyl overlook pops and clicks and consider them part of the ambience. Why would Nenuphar be such a different game when its ~91dB sensitivity is bog standard? Because its tapered quarter-wave tube backloads the driver whose motor with a real army of neodymium slugs rocks flux in excess of 2 tesla. That exerts high self damping to not lean on Neptune for control and to in fact prefer a much lighter hand. What on the Qualio load had been a demerit turned into a virtue on the Cube. It's a core aspect of proper SET matching. Could there be others?

Attlilio: "Sorry that I forgot to mention it earlier. The two unmarked knobs next to the 211 are noise trimmers. They must be readjusted each time you change speakers." Armed with this vital bit of intel, I indeed managed to suppress hum to virtual inaudibility at the seat whilst not entirely right next to the widebanders. But as tube lovers would remind us, who listens to their speakers from just five centimetres? Extreme intimacy is for headphones.