All I can tell you is what I hear. Part of it is probably due to the tube preamp, but I think most of it is that the JOB only needs .75v for full gain and most amps need to see over 1v to reach full gain. My other four amps that were in the Music Room needed at least 1.5v. If I switched out to a SS preamp I might hear something different, but I have always liked the sound of half tubes and half SS. When I run one of the tube amps I put the SS preamp in. I don't know if Joe has tried his JOB with a tube preamp and if he has if his available speakers are sensitive enough to hear the tube rush. His TAD's and Revel's are both in the mid-80's as are his Pioneer's like mine. When I tried the Pioneer's and the Vandersteen's, both mid-80's, I didn't hear it. I thought it might just be the phono stages so I turned on the digital rig for the first time in almost a year and heard the same thing.