I received my Pavane 12AT7-T Friday. It was smooth right out of the box. Much better that the JJ ECC81 which I had already swapped out for the stock tube that came with my kit. It was initially better than the stock but not a night and day difference. I now have about 50 hours on it and clarity and dynamics seems to be it's strongsuits. I decided to run my bass amp from the high level signal from the Stereomour and take my Dodd buffer out of the loop using only the digital volume control in MPD. This was quite a bit better, better clarity for certain, less dark, thick in the mids. Well, I ended up selling my buffer, don't get me wrong, I love the Dodd buffer and likely will use another as I believe that the Alps pot is the bottleneck in the buffer.
What is on the immediate horizon is a LDR volume control and probably an in-line Dodd buffer, but first I will run the LDR by itself. I am considering building it right into my Bottlehead chassis, towards the front. I believe heat will be minimal there which is a consideration for the LDR units. More once I have more time on it.
Best,
Ed