Did you ever take a step back

and put in perhaps an old component or cable in your system and go WOW...my CJ premier 14 preamp blew the left channel the other day so I brought in a sub - my old pv10 and I must say it has been quite enjoyable. As I have upgraded everything around it since it was in service, plopping it back in has been really cool! That rounded warm textured groovy tube sound is back (OK colored). I can hear into guitar amps that sound tubed and sweet themselves, acoustic guitar floats around sweetly, man. I have been missing that texture and didn't know it.

I think for me at least I have been in search of the holy linear grail to try and bring as much realism into the room as possible and lost some of the musicality of my system. The PV10 in the system with some fairly revealing components around it has brought some real enjoyment. Now for some tube rolling, awe there I go again!