If anyone's interested, I do have a fairly objective test for fidelity-- and please don't roll your eyes on this one:  It's the resin on a bowstring... That's right... that 'pulling' sound you can only get if a single bowed string sounds right, assuming the recording is good...

I can pick it out right away, that is, if it sounds right... The BB 6DJ8 'D' getter gets it right every time for me on my system, that is the Zen triode with my Tang Band back loaded single-driver horn speakers... Admittedly, with a CD player as source...

Also, the piano... Any coloration is immediately apparent to me on my system... If the timbral accuracy and pitch isn't just right, I grimace... By the nature of the length of the piano strings, the bottom should bloom wide and full, the mids should be somewhat thinner and well defined, and the highs should be rather thin sounding...

On soundstage: A system's soundstage shouldn't sound any different than, well, a real stage... To my way of thinking, it shouldn't sound any bigger, or wider, than when you're listening to a live concert in a good venue...

It's all mater of scale... I don't want a 12 foot wide contrabass, or any other instrumentation sounding bigger than it really is...

(m.)

I find that the more my system improves the more I`m drawn into the art of the...drummer. He has so many sounds emanating from his  kit, and I hear deft touches on the cymabals, quiet rolls, timbre, the psssssp of the h/hat that all sound clearer and more enjoyable. He seems to be the last player to be uncovered clearly.

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Not for me! With a good selection of each tube type, I have loads of flavors of "right." In fact, VERY Right! And each change up shifts the presentation enough for a new and exciting period of deep and enjoyable listening...a musical experience that opens a new depth of enjoyment, partly due to the new awareness it sparks into the inner qualities of the music!

The penny has recently dropped for me that the used tube figures, ie 90/88 is the condition of the two halves of the stereo tube, and not some kind of overal score system which had me puzzled.  :) ( Funny `cause I studied valve cicuits at tech college, but it was that time when transitors and chips had precedence) Thankfully the used tubes I`ve bought are within a couple %.
Given the price differences between NOS and used tubes is there a cut off % figure beyond which you wont buy because of channel imbalance or you know your`ll hear the difference. Syd ..ps there have been and still are lots of t/funken au7/ax7`s on fleabay.

I understand why will likes to keep rolling tubes. But I like to stop when I have a set that works best for most of my sources and recordings and just then swim in the music in that pool of sound.

It fascinates me how the input tube and rectifier tube interact, that seems to be the key to the whole game to me, with regulation tubes being important afterwards. I settle on an input tube and then work to find a rectifier that best complements it. I've really run into something that I hadn't expected rolling tubes in the CSP2+: one 5Y3GT sounds head and shoulders more "right" than others, or 5U4G types, the Valve Audio 274B (probably my least favorite of those tried) etc. Will be interesting to see how my other 5Y3GT tubes on hand sound in my upcoming ZP3.

Well, it's also the tube that the webpage says this preamp is designed around, which means it would be the tube I'd most be inclined to use. 5U4G and 274B seem to exaggerate image and sound stage in this preamp. I'm not into that. They also don't seem to have the tonal accuracy I want, which may be ic and pc related as well.

What gets me is that one particular tube clearly outshines the other 5Y3GT tubes I have. I've had it a long time, still has plenty of juice. I'm hoping to keep it in use a long time.