Most of the people here love the T1 of course. For it's retail price, I would have passed, but for $80 used, this thing is really worth every dollar. I've rolled several tubes with it and they really helped me achieve the kind of sound I'm looking for. I was expecting a lot from the 7308 based on the reviews, but it's not even on my top three tubes.
Also, I'm not using the T1 as a HP amp/dac. I'm using it as pure DAC to feed signal to my Yamaha CA-1010 receiver driving a pair of KEF 104/2.
I'm now using a Russian 6N1P on it that I bought for $5 shipped. It is very holographic and warm without losing much detail. Soundstage is wide and airy. For the 7308, I find it to be more "solid-state" sounding. The 6N1P, 6n23P, and Siemens Halske (RCA Printed red) 6DJ8 sounded more warm to me.
What I've learned so far is not to purely base your gear on what you read on the internet. Cheap stuff doesn't mean it cannot make you happy and satisfied. The T1 is a great device for the money, and the tube rolling just made it more appealing to the consumers. If it doesn't sound good to you, sell it, buy a more expensive and better equipment, and move on.
Not everyone will like the T1, but it sure served well for the most people here.
Thanks for the info! How does it work when you use it as a HP DAC?
Interesting about the Amperex, but I guess everyone has their likes, and probably each set of HPs will make a difference too.
I'm feeling that the Aune probably isn't for me. Just a lot of comments on it not being that good fo rthe X2's as well.
But at the same time, it seems like a nice DAC, and I don't know if there are other Tube DACs out there, which makes it unique...
A few people were talking about the Vali 2 being good for the X2's, but others were saying you're takign a warm tube amp, and warm headphones....
But that again comes to the question about "Bright" tube amps. I was reading a comment on here about it, and people had varying degrees of opinion on it.
It seems like the tube itself is was matters. YOu can get a warm tube, or a bright tube, the properties of the tube will "color" the sound to what you want.
The vali looks nice, and is the same price as the Aune. The Aune also seemed to have some issues reported by people here, so having something that's All American made and seems to be of quality is nice, plus tons of people love Schiit...
Just not sure if a Vali 2/Modi 2-Uber would work, but the advice I got, which I wanted to do first, was try out my gear on onboard audio, and see if it can power it or not, since the X2's are low Impedance HPs...