Dear @pani : Never had the opportunity not even to see it. I know very well the Kondo design estrategy and japanese unique way of thinking and I know very well the Kondo silver caps.
Yes, for an all tube designs it’s not only very expensive but with excellent performance inside the tube limitations.
I was for almost 10 years a tube lover and have first hand experiences with almost all the best of the best tube electronics and I learned very carefully of its true limitations against the fully advanced designs in all solid state designs that is an almost not limited design alternative.
Look, it’s not fair for tube alternative to try and make comparisons against a way different electronics alternative that for me is a superior one and especially when we are talking of phonolinepreamps.
Everytime I make listening item comparisons, been analog or digital medium, I compare what the room/system gives against my several first hand experiences with live MUSIC seated at near field position ( that’s the way recording microphones are " seated ". ) and listening the same recording tracks that I know even how performs its click and pops.
I’m not married/biased with what I like but with what should be.
I respect other gentleman opinions and especially yours but we have different targets and due that I’m not a rich man I have to learn and learned by my self and with the advise of gentlemans with higher knowledge levels than me how with out all that money need it to be " there " I can be " there " modifiying, up-grading, building and fine tunning my room/system. As a fact from some time now I’m in the fine tunning stage.
R.