Moisturizer. Counter-steer Accuton dryness. Gilder. Shift the overall hue from platinum to gold. Diffusor. Move emphasis from attack to bloom. Flowing. Connect the dots in more leisurely than sprung fashion. Scaling. A side effect of bloom, image less laser-locked but puffier so larger. Densifier. Emphasize pigmentation over separation. Sweetening. Soften subliminal tendencies to harden up or feel subtly brittle. Bodybuilding. Add mass. All these aspects had obviously been present already on IQ. There they'd simply added in ways which to varying degrees overshot. Though only a partial stand-in, think of pouring wine into an already full glass. You'll spill a minor mess. With Aptica that glass was only half full so topped off beautifully. In tube circles, the 6SN7 is referred to as a big-tone bottle. Without prior experience with 211, I don't know whether cognoscenti apply the same term to it. If they do, I'd not be surprised. Whilst many tubes hang body, Neptune's flavor combined the meaty with the fluffy. I didn't hear any 45-type airiness or Takatsuki 300B brilliance. That fluffier aspect wasn't from aeration but a looser grip without shortness of control. I didn't hear blur or ethereal, just buoyant slightly diffuse mellow materialism. On this small-driver'd compact tower, Neptune's handling of the macro had it stand unexpectedly tall.

Hum pot right next to power triode.

I wouldn't call the effect chunky though. That particular billowing undermined thinking of sounds as smooth hard golf balls. Instead they suggested more suede-finished breathing things. This textural quality also explains why on perceived resolution from crisp separation and inter-note blackness, Neptune played it less fastidious. The performance feel wasn't the observer's bean-counting perspective but a relaxed semi merger into fields of gently spreading strongly back-lit water colours. Because that's not an inherent quality of Aptica, Neptune's injection didn't go overboard. It felt like a satisfying enhancement well apart from caricature. What it couldn't do simultaneously was render inter-note space as completely silent and freshly dusted. Whether due to a higher noise floor or some microphonic 'dithering', Neptune portrayed connective tissue, not outer-space nothingness between/behind the sounds. This is more similar to a concert's far seats where reflective sound massively dominates direct sound to create the cohesion of overlay and intermingling. If you fancy the drier spikier more energetic sharply separated vibe of the near seats, Neptune probably won't be your first choice. It plays thicker just not sticky or suffocating. Again, inherent fluffiness counteracts clumping.

Without puffing them up with sundry music samples—at nine pages I've tested your patience enough already—these are my findings on Neptune's voice. Three different loads agreed on the details just not their extent. Extent depended on whether my chosen speaker further emphasized the same traits, changed direction to modify them or introduced technical reasons for a mismatch. With my time with the Elrog ER211 over before Neptune landed, I can't speak to voicing leeway from tube rolling. From prior experience with other valve amps, that can really nudge the sound's overall gestalt. I don't see why it wouldn't here, too. I just couldn't predict by how much and in what direction. I heard the provided JJ and Psvane MkII bottles. As to the final remote replacing the provisional one, I received no drawings or photos to share with you.

In Steve Guttenberg's The Audiophiliac tradition of 'what did I really think', remember my status quo as an ex tube fancier. Since then I unapologetically switched from the 2nd-harmonic to the 3rd-harmonic camp and to DC-coupled transistors for exploded bandwidth. Conducting a new blind date with a sample of prior love and lust so many years later showed that I hadn't changed my changed proclivities. Unless a surprise that's still to come educates me otherwise—unlikely given this sentence unless it's Berning or LTA—I really seem to be off the tube-amp-for-speakers wagon for good. But that's just me. Against prior valve-powered sessions, I could well appreciate Neptune's lovely mix of qualities, be impressed and reassured by its build quality and finish. I'd simply not opt for the endless selfie that was my loaner's mirror-gloss polish. Looking at myself in an amp's reflections isn't my idea of (cough) beauty. I was also impressed that once I understood the hum pots, self noise really suppressed; and that Neptune came on/off without any noises or protracted warm-up. Team Tektron clearly know their glowing beans and feel that with their Masterpiece range, they've eclipsed their previous best. I'm in no position to argue with that!

Tektron respond: Dear Srajan, thank you very very much for your amazing review! We really appreciate it! So detailed and interesting from so many points of view. All the best and thank you again, Angela & Attilio