What Is Most Important?

Contentment.  Assuming you have assembled a system that delivers what you value, at some point you have to jump off the merry go round.  

When I near the end, can't imagine I will care what 6L6 tube sounds "the best".

Carpathian, even though I took a bit of abuse from one member for having mentioned my preamp more than once, since you asked, it is the Herron VTSP-3A  tube preamplifier, it is one of the early ones that were first developed by Keith Herron, it uses six 6922 tubes, where later units only have four 6922s.

I don't know if this makes much of a difference in sound quality, but I love this preamp far beyond any other I have ever owned or heard. I'm not much of a well-traveled audiophile, but I am astonished at the spectacular improvement in how my system sounds. You can see what my system is composed of in Virtual Systems- Done For Now, under the name of "The Summit", meaning my personal summit.

Custom built HPD Tannoy speakers, DIY custom crossovers, and 3C24 tube power amp designed and built by Paul Birkeland are the main contributors in the stereo part of my music-home theater system.

Thank you for asking, regards,

Dan Thomason

That element for me is listening to songs that I’ve heard hundreds of times and hearing them for the first time. It doesn’t happen in every song, but there are some that make me take notice. Whoa wait a minute moments. I knew there were back up singers but not there and there and there! Wait what moments. That guitar riff has always been great, but I never heard that other guitar far off in the back responding to the first. Those hair standing moments when a female vocalists is singing soulfully and in the black background you can hear her lips part to form a word. Yeah, this hobby can be tedious at times, but it’s those moments that make it special.

Thank you, Dan.

Checked out your system, mighty impressive to me!

Enjoying wtf you have.
Occasionally I fall into that state of mind where I’m more focused on what needs improvement or what doesn’t sound right than just enjoying what I have.