JimL11
I am thinking clearly! The T8000 could be better for $6000.
I only want the best sounding tubes! Why suffer with STAX second-rate Russian tubes for 10 to 20 years in the T8000? The T8000 could be better sounding, with better tubes IMO.
Put Low noise RCA clear Top tubes from the 60 or 70's in your SRM T1. They will blow out the stock Russian tubes. The T8000 "properly designed" with good sounding NOS tubes will blow out stock Stax T8000 supplied tubes.
Wow. Just wow. First of all, the stock tubes in the T1 are commonly Toshiba, and sometimes GE, neither of them Russian tubes. Both Hirsch (an experienced tube roller) and spritzer have posted on Head-Fi years ago that the Toshiba tubes sound better than the GE, RCA, or any number of other NOS tubes - in the T1 specifically. And Hitachi tubes sound better than RCA, GE, etc. also. Seems that Stax, a Japanese company, designed the T1 around the Toshiba and Hitachi, Japanese tubes. Who woulda thunk it?
Second of all, ever wonder why commercial manufacturers don't use NOS tubes, as a general rule? For the simple reason that while a hobbyist can be a couple of tubes off of eBay or from a tube dealer, it is difficult if not impossible to buy several thousand NOS tubes, and no guarantee that when stocks run low, they can go out and buy another several hundred, plus spares for replacements. The T8000 uses 6DJ8 tubes. Some of the most favored 6DJ8 tubes are Amperex. Have you priced any lately? And we're talking about NOS tubes, not good used tubes. Call around and see if any tube resellers can get you 1000 NOS Amperex tubes. Or Telefunken. Or Siemens. They will probably laugh in your face.
And 1000 tubes will get you 250 amps (2 tubes/amp, plus 2 replacements). And remember that the usual multiplier factor for an OEM is 5x, meaning that whatever it costs on the market as a "part", will be 5x multiplied in the final cost.
You may not like the Russian tubes, but that is what is available. Also, the "rules" for DC coupled electrostatic amplifier design, which amplify signals by 1000-fold, are somewhat different than for tube preamps, which amplify signals by, say 10-20 fold, and are AC coupled. If a DC coupled electrostatic amp is off by 0.2 volts at the input, that's 200 volts offset at the output. If an AC coupled preamp is off by 0.2 volts at the input, that's 2-4 volts at the output, which is capacitor coupled anyway so the DC is blocked.
Remember, as Kevin Gilmore posted, if you have the equipment, the knowledge, and a bunch of tubes to test, you can swap tubes. It's just not pull and plug. Stax is a commercial manufacturer. Most of their customers are not tube rollers. You're asking them to cater to a small fraction of the customer base.
I understand what you are saying, but what you are proposing is just not realistic. Oh, and I do agree with your second sentence, but for different reasons.
And as AnakChan says, if you don't like the T8000, you don't have to buy it. Buy the BHSE instead, or wait for the new all-tube HeadAmp design when it becomes available, and go crazy. Or build my SRX Plus design which has 4 12AT7s and 2 6SN7GTA/B tubes for a fraction of the cost of the T8000. Or build a Kevin Gilmore design like the Grounded Grid, or KGST, or his T8000 clone. You have options.