Can’t anyone create it?
You’ve been listening only to colored tube equipment if you think all tube equipment is euphonic, or you’re simply being lazy in your commentary. If a designer is going for that sound (Cary Audio, most 300B SET amps), sure, that’s what you will get but the Line Magnetics, Thomas Mayers, and numerous others, are not. Transparency doesn’t exclude tubes.
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I appreciate that not all valve amplifiers sound “tubey” - much of it is in the design implementation, output transformers etc.
My previous hybrid amp didn’t sound all “warm, lush and tubey”, especially with NOS Russian 6N23P in the input stage. It was very neutral sounding.
Tubes do generally sound different from solid state though. Harmonic distortion is much higher than the best solid state gear and the spread of harmonics is different.
My original response was to someone with a very strong preference for tubes who described Benchmark gear “as characterless and boring”. It’s not IME. It’s measurably and audibly transparent and with the right speakers sounds superb. Someone who says that of gear is clearly listening to tube equipment which has a substantially coloured/characterful presentation.
It depends greatly on the speakers as to how different amps sound as well. A speaker which has a naturally forward presentation might sound pretty dire on transparent amplification, but may fare better with a more “relaxed” sounding amplifier setup.
I wasn’t dissing tubes - I still have 2 tube headphone amps, I also have 2 solid state ones.
Whilst there are differences, the differences are quite subtle.
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Some like vanilla ice cream, some like vanilla bean. It’s all a matter of taste.
You’re mixing scopes. Vanilla ice cream is a spectrum of deliciousness. Vanilla bean is but one variant. You are correct, perhaps accidentally. Sorry for you French vanilla fans, vanilla bean is the only correct answer.
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Very fine set-up. The Stainless wall plates compliment an already elegant system!
Thank you John
I read that if you heat up and then cool the gunked up lamp it will clear up with time (and luck)
Innuos Zenith Mk3 server/streamer,
Innuos Phoenix USB reclocker,
Chord Hugo MScaler upsampler,
Chord DAVE DAC/headphone amp,
Focal Utopia headphones,
Lampizator Callisto USB cables,
Shunyata Hydra Delta D6 Power Conditioner with Delta NR and Venom V14 power cables
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Fantasic chair, what is it?
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No idea. But it looks like it could work on the bridge of a Star Trek starship.
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All the effort for a pure power supply and then a lot of powerful electric motors in the armchair? Can you have both? 
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I guess we’ll have to ask Scotty about that. 
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It’s a very large beast
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Japanese I’m going to guess, goes along with the fancy loo seats.
Probably drives like a dream.
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It’s an AmaMedic Hilux 4D Massage Chair, and it’s every bit as comfy as it looks — but it keeps putting me to sleep, so I’m only able to listen to a couple tracks per session. Worth the trade off.
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Impressive! 
Back in KC for a while now, so here is my KC setup:
The speakers are Sonus Faber Serafino Tradition. Turntable is a Rega Planar 2 purchased from a coworker, I upgraded to a nicer Grado cartridge. To the right of the center speaker:
SimAudio Moon 110LP phono stage.
Benchmark DAC3 L.
The cabinet sections from left to right:
The left section contains a switch, wifi extender, Roon bridge and a Benchmark AHB2 running bridged mono powering left speaker.
The center section contains a Marantz multi-channel amp to handle everything other than the front two speakers and a brick wall surge protector.
The right section contains a Marantz 8801 AV processor, and the other AHB2.
90% of my time is listening to 2ch. The remainder is sports or an occasional movie. The DAC3 L has an analog bypass so that when I do watch TV, I can pass the two front speaker analog inputs from the AVR through the DAC to the amps. For my music listening the AVR is not involved at all.
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