Would be nice if they were, hay
I have a pair of the old type in the first coupling stage of my jfet phono stage, with VSF's on the out-put, and have been tempted to replace them with another pair of VSF's....... but will it be worth the expense? or would I be better investing that in a move to a all tube phono stage?
A difficult thing for me to decide on, so Steve's opinion on the Hovland's is of great interest to me, I know he would have better perception with these things than I do, and others here would also have better than I do
Although, an all tube phono stage is very attractive