I replaced the volume pot on my tube preamplifier.

@mulveling  It’s certainly an eye-opener for sure. Most manufacturers are component lazy, compromising their product sonically and economically. 

Agree! I’m normally a fan of "affordable, but reliable and sounds good" parts (like resistors, caps), and get a little hesitant to just blindly go in for exotic $$$ parts which can sometimes change the sound a little too sterile, bright, or analytical IMO. But the Alps Blue is defintely NOT a good sounding part in a very critical position; most of its alternatives sound better :) 

So you went from ALPS with wipers to discrete ?  How old were the originals?

@erik_squires  No. There’s not enough room to fit a discrete unit. The TACOS are carbon wipers whereas the Alps were plastic film. And, truth be told, I’m somewhat frugle in wringing out the best bang for the buck. 

Ah, interesting.  I wasn't sure I thought someone made a discrete mini pot with surface mounted resistors.  Glad your experiment worked out!

@erik_squires  Like these?
DACT audio attenuators
DACT Shop
CT2 Stepped Audio Attenuators - DACT

Interesting that these probably would fit but I’m not sure how well SMD resistors sound, and I wasn’t gonna take a $300 tryout! If I was building my own phono amp (some day!), I’d use a switched unit with bulk foils.