Sutts. I have both the Genelex Gold Lion KT88 and the new Shuguang KT88-Z black bottle Treasure series tubes. The Genelex absolutely stomp on the EH, Svets or anything else in current production, and the Shuguang KT88-Z has a more layered sounding background when fully burned in, but really boils down to your audio-tastebuds and upsource components. As for the direct input theory, I run an Ayon CD5 direct into the Triton and I tell you truthfully, this short path signal will make you wonder why you have invested in a preamp at all, especially if you only have one or two sources. The first step however, is to get yourself a Triton, then you can know first hand what the talk is all about. Military Jan 5814's do a nice job in the pre section as well.
The Big Ayon Triton KT-88 Int Amp- tube rolling?
I am quite pleased with the stock tubes, however am wondering if any Ayon Triton owners have tried anything other than the Gold Lion Re-issued KT-88's? As for the input tubes, how about the RCA 12au7's- tried anything else?
**And as a sidebar- as this is an integrated with Direct preamp input option, has anyone actually tried to add another preamp in front of it with good results?
**And as a sidebar- as this is an integrated with Direct preamp input option, has anyone actually tried to add another preamp in front of it with good results?