@kennythekey @djohnson54 thank you for the input. I should have qualified a little more...
”Way up”, they probably ran for about 4-6/day for the first year, due to the preamp being inband of the home theater signal. I’ll swap the L/R channels, but it sounded more as if it was coming from the L channel; which could be due to the pan/mix. I bypassed my preamp all together and am running it direct from my DEQX unit and it’s DAC. I use a McIntosh C2500, I don’t know if those run super hot or not, per your comment @djohnson54 . Running it through the DEQX, the harshness is removed. Faulty tube, very well could be. I probably have about 2.5k - 3.5k hours on them.
@kennythekey They are NOS. I bought them from Kevin at Upscale Audio. They’re the Mullard CV4004 12AX7 NOS.
”Way up”, they probably ran for about 4-6/day for the first year, due to the preamp being inband of the home theater signal. I’ll swap the L/R channels, but it sounded more as if it was coming from the L channel; which could be due to the pan/mix. I bypassed my preamp all together and am running it direct from my DEQX unit and it’s DAC. I use a McIntosh C2500, I don’t know if those run super hot or not, per your comment @djohnson54 . Running it through the DEQX, the harshness is removed. Faulty tube, very well could be. I probably have about 2.5k - 3.5k hours on them.
@kennythekey They are NOS. I bought them from Kevin at Upscale Audio. They’re the Mullard CV4004 12AX7 NOS.