I love how audio seems such a simple thing but ends up being the most complex subject you can imagine.
I remember when I got my HA300MK2 and at the time I had HA6a I'd spent 2 years with rolling tubes ... and my first impressions were "it doesn't really sound better than my HA6a ... What did I spend all that money on!" ... there are posts to that tune in the history of this thread
And while at the time, with stock tubes this was true, I really had no idea how far HA300MK2 would take me. (even though
@Wes S did and tried to tell me :> ) It shot off so far that it overtook everything I had before keeping up with the other amp I use that is 2x price. Especially that it runs efficient speakers really well as well.
And with the last few months of intense rolling and exploration of all of its tube families, I know how much sonic richness there is. If I would lose it somehow I know I would buy it again in a heartbeat, and that's not something I would say about most of the gear I owned over the years (and I owned more than I care to admit
)