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Right. I do not mean to suggest that my own solution for arriving at an acceptable global result using the Milq full-range was not a short-cut with regrettable new weaknesses (or just missed or postponed opportunities). But I am curious (wary) about what you mean by the “one-sided” results of using a DHT for the upper midrange (if I misread you correctly). I also wonder whether it is even conceivable that such an amp might use valve rectification and still keep up with the Milq. Suppose further that it was asked to drive not only a compression driver but also a 6” paper cone from 400Hz to 1000Hz? I want to doubt all that, but I haven't thought about it too much. What I do know is that I am quite allergic to the sound of solid-state bridge + 6C33C + amorphous iron in the upper midrange. However, with oversized, steel-core OPT's, lowish end of permissible voltage (not starved!) on the 6e5p, foil caps on C4 and C5, and a system-wide ban on silver molecules (ok atoms), you do start to get a peculiar, stoic elegance out of this tube, and you do not lose too much. Though I am keen on trying a DHT to play along with the Milq, I suppose it's easier said than done. There are a lot of amps out there using celebrated or obscure triodes but which have precious little in the way of tonal sophistication. Less than my Milq, anyway.

As for the M2, I heard it only once in a very controlled environment (one of these demonstration rooms in NYC where you are made to feel that you ought to have paid admission just to behold this or that sonic magnificence, and then kicked out after one movement of something like “Hilary Hahn” played back on a $75,000 CD player). If I'm honest, I was amazed by the sound. But I did not really do much about it at the time. I was using ANJ M77 and Neiro (parallel 2A3) then and had not yet discovered real problems with that amplification. Also, the Kondo, even if it has a particularly strong sonic signature, benefits from an organic-sounding tonal shaping, whereas the Lamm sounded more synthetically processed (and I did not know, or care that much, if it was some Disney-esque production quality of the recording or something else).

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