need tube advice from tube preamp owners.

for very detailed comparisions of the sound qualities of various NOS tubes, check out Joe's Tube Lore at the tube forum on Audio Asylum.

newbee, im not looking to correct a problem that isnt there all im lookin for is advice on some good preamp tubes maybee even from a c2200 owner who has tried a few.

whats wrong with hearing differences in a preamp right from the start & making choices as to what sound i like the best.

from the little tube experience ive had with my mc2102 & c20 preamp i know a good tube makes the unit take on a entirly different feel & thats what i want to explore right from the start.

Take Newbee's advise, you need a base line for reference to start out, otherwise you don't know what you are comparing against.

thanks swampwalker, thats just what i needed.

i dont get it? really i mean i dont get it, if i swap out the gold dragons that are in my dac for some telefunkins i hear a difference right off the bat & i mean instantly.

while i admit i know almost zero about tubes i still have no idea why i need to listen to one certian tube for months before checkin out another,what base line do i need to hear.

to me swapin out a set of tubes is very little different from adjusting treble or bass or even changing a setting on a equalizer.

can somebody explain the benifit of listening for months.

Bigjoe, The point in my post was, first of all, you should let your amp break in and become accoustomed to what it sounds like in stock form. Once you have done that you can decide how to change its sonic signature - thats what most folks are doing when they change tubes. If you have no idea what you would like to improve how can you select tubes? You can ask on this forum what kind of tubes some one else uses in their amp but while thats specific it only really has meaning if you have heard their system in their room and you must know what kind of sound they prefer, for example I like a neutral sound and place a great deal of emphasis on clarity of tone. But a lot of folks want warm sounding tubes w/bass emphasis, and some like their tubes to have a slight emphasis or extra energy in the highs.

If you have no reference, i.e. what you want your system to sound like and you just change tubes because some one else sez that brand X sounds great in your amp you are likely to find your self spending a lot of money unnecessarily. Joes Tube Lore is a great starting place for an understanding of the difference in tubes, BUT the real measure of how a tube sounds is how it sound in YOUR amp, not how it sounds in mine. For example, until a few weeks ago I couldn't find a place for some EH12AX7a I bought to experiment with. Too much high energy. Voila, I got a new amp and for some reason they sound just fine.

Just trying to save you some frustration and money....sorry.