Same boat man. The single best cook I had in all of 2021 was a tri tip. SRF Wagyu, 3.5 lbs. Smoked it for a couple of hours and then seared it at 850 on the Kamado and it came out amazing. "It's too gamey" is what I remember my wife saying. 17 if I know what's wrong with her. It was delicious. And no offense to the OP, but if you cook it well on a smoker, its perfectly tender with a little extra flavor that is impossible to get in sous vide. I will put that Tri Tip last year up against any ever made and take my chances.
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No offense taken. As I said, probably the closest you can get is slow & low in a smoker. I'd argue about the smoke flavor though. Good brand liquid smoke works great, and is literally the same stuff that seeps into your meat in a smoker. It's not artificial, rather distilled/captured as the steam from the wood chips and cooled down to a liquid.
The stuff I made above was just USDA Choice...not even prime, much less Wagyu. Sous vide is especially amazing at taking what would normally be tougher meat and have it come out tender. I'd love to see what sous vide would do with Wagyu, but it is WAY too expensive out here in NorCal.
BTW, if your wife likes prime rib, my method works great. Simply patted the meat dry, then applied rock salt, letting it sit until it looked like sweat on the meat. Wiped it off a bit before bagging & sous vide because sous vide can intensify seasoning. Applied Carne Asada seasoning as a dry rub, immediately vacuum-sealed it and put it in the sous vide bath. 6 hours later I pulled it, opened the bag and patted it dry again while my cast iron skillet got smokin' hot. Brushed it with avocado oil (olive oil is fine too), then seasoned it with garlic salt. Added a small amount of oil to the hot skillet before searing the meat, adding a little butter to help get that nice deep-brown sear. THat's it! Very little prep time. Once it is in the sous vide bath you don't have to baby-sit it. Just go about your day until it is ready 6 hours later. And with sous vide, you have a huge window to go get it after the 6 hours. Never going to cook beyond the level of doneness you choose, though if you go past 12 hours it might get a little mushy.
Using this method you will get consistent results every single time. Comes out exactly how you want it every time with little effort. Another cool thing is you can sous vide as much meat as you want, store some in the freezer, then when you are ready, throw the frozen ones back in a sous vide bath for perhaps an hour to reheat...then sear right before you are ready to serve. Think about that. In the same amount of time it takes to cook that day's meal you can cook & freeze extra, then have it plated in just over an hour after you decide to have it!
One more thing JLS, some people have reported great results from sous vide followed by a finish in the smoker before searing.
