Andrew,
I have never listened to a VAC preamp, however, my Audio Horizons preamp has plenty of gain to drive my 90 db speakers. I was buying from www.dougstubes.com my Penta SC tubes( specially selected tubes from Shuguang) which have the solid plates, but Penta apparently has raised their prices so Doug recently brought in the Ruby KT88V-STR, http://www.dougstubes.com/power-tubes/6550-kt88/ruby-kt88-v-str.html which are identical solid plates with top and side getters made by Shuguang. I haven't tried these yet but bought a quad for future use. The solid plate Shuguangs are very neutral and natural in tonal balance and timbre, neither too warm nor too cold, but tweaking the right combination of interconnects, speaker cables and power cords, helps to bring that all into focus.
Sherod
I have never listened to a VAC preamp, however, my Audio Horizons preamp has plenty of gain to drive my 90 db speakers. I was buying from www.dougstubes.com my Penta SC tubes( specially selected tubes from Shuguang) which have the solid plates, but Penta apparently has raised their prices so Doug recently brought in the Ruby KT88V-STR, http://www.dougstubes.com/power-tubes/6550-kt88/ruby-kt88-v-str.html which are identical solid plates with top and side getters made by Shuguang. I haven't tried these yet but bought a quad for future use. The solid plate Shuguangs are very neutral and natural in tonal balance and timbre, neither too warm nor too cold, but tweaking the right combination of interconnects, speaker cables and power cords, helps to bring that all into focus.
Sherod