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You nailed it! I am glad you got to try both and can explain the differences accurately. I do get questions on the differences, and going forward, I will just ask them to watch your video 😁

Wow !!! Thank you for the detailed analysis , It made it easier for decide which one to buy 😉👍🎶

Nice review comparing the two different versions. Maybe Thomas will let you return the base model and give you a special upgrade deal? Just talk really nice to him. 😅 This is a hobby where we constantly tweak things and change things. It's part of the enjoyment. But at the end of the day, you have to keep the focus just on listening to the music and enjoying it without over analyzing it. Most of us never will find our endgame system, no matter how much money we have to spend.

I acquired my tube amp from a secret audiophile zen master who crafts them from specialty cast iron, titanium tubes, and a carbon neutral wooden water wheel power supply. Being rather uneven as a water wheel can get, he feeds the juice from that into a special high capacity, slow leak capacitor which is hand made to feed the exact wattage specified for the tubes and whatever speakers you may wish to risk with it. The amp is rated at no less than 3/4 amp, and no more than 39.7 on the top end, with the wattage being fed to the speakers more dependent on how fast you can get the wheel turning, so you might not want to park your amp next to a babbling brook if you are expecting any volume at all, and certainly not the 11 set as the max volume. You might also wish to equip your amp with the optional Zen Master 85 loudness button, which when pressed, makes everything louder, HOW louder exactly no one has taken the time to measure, but take our word for it......your cat's ears will bleed. The REAL attraction is the new titanium tubes designed for this amp.....these puppies are INDESTRUCTIBLE, and might even add a certain amount of molton hot warmth to your music, with a soundstage so incredibly wide you might have to get a bigger house in order to truly appreciate it. You could fit Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Band in this soundstage! And deep? My Gods, it's so deep you might not be able to hear that standing bass player stepping on that cat way in the back! As far as playing Frankenstein thru it.....well.....this kind of tube amp is more partial to Vampire musicals. The blood curdling shrieks are SO well rendered! And since this amp is built with cast iron, you can bet there won't be any stray vibrations running down your $5000 cables. Not that this amp uses standard audio cables......nope, this puppy uses 107% pure lead piping, feeding your music straight thru to your speakers with no loss of fidelity whatsoever. Some people HAVE complained of a "hollow" sound coming out of this rig, but hey, that's what tone controls are for, right? So, anyway, to top it off, for an additional $2374.99 you can get your amp with aluminum. Kind of like how new iPhones come "with titanium". So no, you'll have no idea what "with aluminum" imparts to your amp, but you can act all cool just like an Apple person! So, put your order in now, since these are hand built if you expect to get one before you retire. As usual, a great video, Rick, even if your tube amps are those cheap ones imported from Montana! Later, dude!

Great Job ! Sounds profile is actually different 'Current feedback ' The Standard edtion to me the upper mids sounded a tad more forward than special edtion and Less Forward than Doge 10 - GALION sounds amazing with me Dynaudio Towers ' really brought the Airyness and sparkle to the Dynes- Yes top end is boosted (V'Curve) but the amp is refined enough not to sound overly bright !! Did you get my Mullards !! You should try Golden lions/TAD mixed !! Ohhh my God !! G.L. in T-1/3 and TAD in T 2/4 😊 You bought a badass amp ! What all speakers did you roll with ?

I would have to assume that the different tubes played a big part in what you were hearing. I'm a firm believer in break in time. I would like one day to have a tube amp. If you decide to get the special edition "hint hint" I know someone that would be happy with the standard edition 😊 I nearly fainted when I seen the pic of you holding up that giant tube.

Nice down to earth review. Not what I wanted to hear as it appears I may have to save up a bit more...that being said, I''m sure I'd be happy with the standard. Now if I could just find one in silver.

I can’t find the standard version to buy on the website.

It would be interesting to one day discuss which artists and albums sound better played back through tube equipment and which you might prefer through transistor gear. I overwhelmingly like tubes better, but superb transistor gear is not something without it's charms also. Anything with a lot of piano and flute in it, I would lean toward tubes. Jethro Tull for instance; only tubes on Tull for me. In fact flute and piano might be where tubes shine the most over most transistor gear. The flutes are so fluffy that you wonder whether the word fluffy, didn't come from the word flute. Wouldn't think of playing Tull on anything but tubes. They did a Christmas album if you didn't know. Massed strings are another thing. Before I hardly did any listening to classical, one Christmas evening I was listening to the first Johnny Mathis Christmas album on Columbia, (he did an earlier one for Mercury). The massed violins came in on the left, on I think it was Sleigh Ride, and I remember thinking to myself, "Massed strings and tubes might be the nicest sound ever made." I had never heard strings so sumptuous and beautiful before; they were literally like a magnet, drawing me in. Chances are that any good piano recording will sound less thin on the middle and high keys, and quite a bit richer in the lower registers with tubes. Yet around that same time period, I put on The Ventures Christmas Album. The Ventures, a guitar instrumental group were incredibly well recorded. Hard to believe how well actually, especially from that far back. With The Ventures and tubes, the sound was nice but I preferred the Ventures with solid state. No piano, flute, vocals or massed strings.on that album. Solid state gave the music more incisiveness that the tube reproduction slightly lacked. I'm talking Ventures cds. Finding excellent copies of the original lp is hard and probably usually expensive. There are two different Ventures Christmas collections on cd. One is much longer and one shorter with different songs. The Ventures were just so good. A little known fact is that for nearly 30 years, the best selling rock instrumental album of all time was a Ventures album. Finally displaced by Joe Satriani, and his album that had a title about Surfing With Aliens. Some other artistss that sound great with tubes include, Heart, Supertramp, Sade, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Yes, The Beatles, The Doors etc. I generally like tubes for acoustic jazz. Although ultimately, I think system synergism plays a big part.

Almost makes me want to try a tube amp.....almost.... LOL!