Some of my buddies have saved up and gone with 14s with a good tube and a DBAL D2. Its the path I would choose if I was looking for more value from my savings. I just use mine a lot and the ol’ nerve bundle would miss stereo. A mono is much cheaper, and still quite good, though. It gets you across the capability threshold. In gun terms, a 14 is a 6920 and a UL BNVD SG is a SR15 or a proper M4A1.

When I said “spend what it takes to get L3 filmless”, I didn’t have a specific number of dollars or tubes in mind. I should have said “buy however many L3 filmless tubes you can afford and still have enough leftover for a DBAL D2 and/or TLR VIR II”. I suppose I should add that a top-shelf thin-filmed tube would also get you across the capability threshold. Falls off fast below that, though.