To be honest, I think it's too early to tell which sound I like. Haven't even rolled in my better tubes yet. But I will say the noise floor is dramatically different. I also figure that some of the difference I'm hearing right now in terms of less background stuff is from the pot change. Getting overzealous and doing both Speedball and pot swap at the same time might have hampered my ability to test the outcomes.Looks nice! Do you like the sound with Speedball more, or without?
I'm running JAN 6AS7G as well. Really smooth tube. I'm looking at input tubes to replace my RCA cleartop, to me its a bit too forward and can end up sounding too shouty in mid-forward headphones. Do you like the Phillips ECC82?
The Philips is fine, but I prefer my RCA cleartop. I got a pair of the Philips to try and plop into a Liquid Platinum, and they ended up being replaced rather quickly by RCA cleartops. Generally I like using 6SN7 variants with a Garage1217 adapter - either my Sylvania metal-base or my brown-base CBS/Hytron. Then again, I built the Crack after a whole lot of tube-rolling on a Darkvoice, so maybe it's just what I have on hand...
(Also a HUGE fan of putting a dual-6J5 adapter into a 6SN7 socket... haven't tried yet on the Crack running 12AU7-6SN7 adapter then 6SN7-dual 6J5 adapter. But I will.)