At the experience of possibly being shunned, I modified an apex 460 (replaced caps tube ) and going through a tube preamp with a peerless input transformer sounded very yummy indeed.
wasn't as clean as a 414 but definitely had some of the yummy warm tube sound.
Definitely usable. and for about 200$ can;t beat it.
Check out the sony c37a clone schematic. have one on my lap right now i just tested, and sounds great!
- sorry if this is off topic, but just tried 2 output transformers with the c37a cathode folloer circuit one 10:1 and one 3:1. the 3:1 sounded much much more alive, and the 10:1 sounded more constrained...
if that ever comes in handy.
Abe