  This seemingly harmless statement separates the boys from the
men. But it's also how innocent enjoyment can devolve into
obsessive never-happy fretting. Fundamentally our endeavor is no
different from any other. Ask any French pastry chef. He'll say
exactly the same. Everything matters. Change the grain size of
the flour. The recipe will foul up. Change when exactly you add
the salt. Things will go pear-shaped too. To him digital data
bits are just bits. But flour definitely isn't flour. Our
involvement with pastry likely limits itself to consumption. We
just eat it. Such basic facts of the trade are nothing but
momentary curiosities then. They quickly fade from consciousness
as we take our next bite. And that's exactly how one should
enjoy hifi too. Yum and all that.  Custom single-ended 50 mono
amplifier from Trafomatic Audio. Because its VT-25 & 25A are
microphonic, their sockets are spring suspended. To avoid
bottoming out during valve swaps, strategic stops act as
excursion limiters. To eliminate physi