Luxman preamp into Mark Levinson amp?

It's all warming up now. I'm going to give it a good soak before I sit for a listen. I'm excited! Might just give it an houre or so.

https://shopgoodwill.com/item/252492374

Ok, I've spent some time listening. My thoughts are......WOW! The difference between the Luxman and the Audio Research SP8 is huge. I will have to get the SP8 in for service to be fair and I don't think the impedence match makes it a fair compairsion any way. That being said, I think I have landed on a system that needs no upgrades for my ear. The detail in the highs is incredible and the bass is shacking the foor. The system sounds ballanced from top to bottom. I noticed that a tamborine sounded like the insterument rather than a shimmering rattle. It was easy to visualize how it was being played; with shakeing and the taps that emphasize a beat. Beautiful. I could clearly hear the attack an electric base string, the percussion strick of a piano and the breathing of the singers. The sound stage was wide and had front to back depth. Though I am still listening below 9 oclock on the volume diel I have more control of the volume because it is not stepped. The SP8 is stepped and was just oppening up before it got too loud. I think to compair the SP8 to the luxman is a mistake but it is not a mistake to say the Luxman is a great match for the Mark Levinson. 

Love to hear you're pleased with the outcome so far! Your experience is very similar to mine when first putting the two together - an immediate sense of greater fullness with a super smooth top end.

On the topic of volume pot positioning - mine also sits at no greater than 9 or 10 o'clock positions for most listening scenarios, but one thing I noticed with the Luxman is very little perceived difference in frequency range with lower volume settings, so no real impact at the end of the day.

Enjoy the music!

I am amazed at how the sound stage envelops me. I have heard wide that goes outside the speakers and I have experienced some depth of sound stage but this is new to me. The sound stage is wide and each instrument has a well defined location. What impresses me most is the way the music seems to wrap all around me. It's like I'm in the middle of sound comming from every direction. I think that experience is mostly base extension but the sound stage depth is finominal!

I was looking at Genalex Golden Lion ECC 82 B749 tubes on one web site for $115 as opposed to Genalex Golden Lion ECC 82 B749 on another site for $62. They don't quite look the same but that could be a cosmetic change only. The more expensive source advertizes "Carefully engineered to recreate all attributes of the original vintage tubes". The les expensive source advertises "Price is for a single tube with standard testing" then gives options for "Balanced Triodes (add $2.00 each), High Gain (add $2.00 each), Low Noise & Microphonics (add $4.00 each), and Matching will become available after entering 2 or more tubes". I understand matching sets of tubes but I don't understand what the other options are. The cost difference of the 2 sellers doesn't ballance out when you add the opptions for the $62 source. 62 + 8 is not 115.

I have a couple of questions. First; how do you identify long plate tubes? Second; what do these terms "Ballanced Triodes, High Gain and Low Noise and Microphonics mean relative to the purchase of these tubes?

Thanks in advance