I wanted to get back to the roots. I wanted so bad. He sure doesn't sound like a little guy, just trust me. We've been building EL84 amplifiers for 15 years and to my ears they always sounded whimpy. It ain't the tubes' fault.
Tubes are linear and can go almost DC to daylight.
At this past Stereophile HIFI '98 show, we put the Stingray up against the 807 monos we build which are 4 times the price and three times the power. The 807's got frikkin' murdered by the lil' Stingray. This means I got some work to do to bring the 807's up to snuff with our new thinking here. I listen for the individual beads on a gourd shaker and the decay on a triangle.