[mulveling]

I'm not sure what the hell I was thinking when I almost sold my REF 6, shortly after acquiring it (used) in late 2017. It's grown on me continuously since then - and it sounds amazing. I got mine with 520 hours on the clock - probably avoiding the worst of burn-in woes - and now have close to 1,900 logged (so 1,400 from me). I recently swapped from a used GE 6550 (1,300 hours) back to the OEM Sovtek (600 hours); no loss of quality detected - in fact it may be even slightly better now. My 6N30P are EH gold-pin with 1,200 hours; Herbie's halos all-around. Might be time to try the OEM Sovtek 6N30P again, then order a spare set of the winner. I also replaced the acrylic top with the steel one, because I was tired of looking at it sag with heat & time.

I'm ecstatic with my system's sound. Cabling (AQ Hurricanes all around) and other swaps/tweaks (e.g. better SUT, better tonearm, Stillpoints on turntable) have truly been icing on the cake this past year. No lack of synergy between the different component brands here: AQ Niagara 7000, VAC Renaissance SE phono, REF 6 pre, Rogue Apollo Dark tube monoblocks. Koetsu Coralstone cartridge on the deck. Absolutely perfect overall balance - any genre of music (including heavy metal). When I upgraded the phono to that VAC, a lot of things snapped into place, and I think the REF 6 was able to truly take off & show off after that.

The functionality of the ARC's remote is also more perfect than any wish-list feature set I could have dreamed up. Joy to use. 10/10.