Likely not. I do miss that clarity. There does seem to be a little bit of mud introduced, and little loss in some of the dynamics.
Told ya! Sort of.
That's the sacrifice you make with Mullard tubes. In certain scenarios I like practically nothing better than a good pair of Mullards, but in others, the slight loss of upper-midrange and upper-frequency clarity can be a bit fatiguing. Just a bit. If all my tube gear were suddenlt equipped with NOS Mullard tubes and I could never have anything else, I would be definitely be able to live with that. You already know my apprehensions about Ei tubes...
I'll take this opportunity to remind you of my philosophy when it comes to interconnects, which I know many of my fellow audiophiles don't agree with. The apex is achieved with solid core silver wire. Not silver-plated copper, not stranded silver, and even though some of my own interconnects use a combination of silver and copper, even that is a slight compromise IMO (we know Grover would disagree, and he and I have debated the issue). I've yet to hear an interconnect design utilizing anything
but all silver (of my own, or the many from major manufacturers that I've tried) that can match the clarity and resolution of all-silver interconnects.
YMMV. But everything matters, from the purity of the wire, the dielectric, the design, the RCA connectors - even the type of solder IMO (because certain types result in better connections/joints IME). Unfortunately it's not cheap to accomplish, any way you approach it. If you have those all-silver Yamamoto interconnects, from what I've heard, it
probably doesn't get much better than that.
Please note I'm not by any means claiming one can't achieve magnificent results with only copper wire. That would obviously be a ridiculous statement. Indeed the differences are subtle, and many prefer copper for their own reasons.
Triode can sound very punchy and dynamic. Just thinking about how great that Phil Collins cd sounded. Wonder if I will hear much difference now.
To editorialize further
D), it would have sounded better if it was Peter Gabriel.
In all seriousness, however, if you soon find yourself in music-buying mode, which I suspect you will, I highly recommend this Peter Gabriel album,
Peter Gabriel 4: "Security." The second song on side A, "San Jacinto," would be a great way to experience your new amp in all its glory!