Why burn in tubes and waste hundreds of hours of tube life? Regardless of whether you believe burn in improves sound, the amp should be enjoyable and usable right from the start. If a tube amp doesn’t sound good within five minutes, even with brand new tubes, something is wrong.
Simple question, probably stupid
Is it necessary to have sound (music or white noise) playing through the speakers when burning in new tubes? I have bought a matched quad of Shuguang KT88 Z Black Treasure tubes to compare with my current Gold Lion KT88 and Tung-Sol KT120 tubes in a Rogue Stereo 90 amp. Reviews of the Shuguang tubes indicate that they need around 200 hours of burn in to reach their true potential but I am not looking forward to having to listen to 200 hours of crap sound.