Five or ten minutes will do. Be very careful, not to touch ANYTHING inside the unit, BUT one tube’s glass envelope. It’s a pre-amp, but there may still be some serious voltages, waiting to awaken you. The rings are dampers(probably Silicone) and you can try them on the Amperex. They'll probably take some of the print, off the tube(not a biggy). You might try waiting until you’ve listened to the Amperex for a couple days, without them. See if you hear a difference. Take your time, relax and have fun.
Tube Rolling for Pre-amps?
I have an Audio Research LS-16 that feeds a Madrigal Proceed HPA2 solid state amp.
I did not choose this equipment; it was given to me. From what I can tell the original owner spent a good bit of time matching up these two components with the speakers, Aerial Acoustics 7Bs.
The tubes in the AR are original. Probably 10-15 years old? But with an extended period of not being used.
The system sounds good to me. I don't need to change anything.
However, I've been told that the tubes are old and may need to be replaced soon. I've also read a little bit about tube rolling but most of the articles I've seen talk mostly about tube rolling with amps and not pre-amps.
So I have some questions:
1) If the original owner wanted a system that sounded like a 'tube' system, why not have a tube amp and pre-amp? Does it make sense to have a tube pre but SS amp?
2) Other than outright failure, how will I know if my tubes _need_ to be replaced?
3) With a SS amp, will changing tubes in the pre-amp have a noticeable impact on SQ? In other words, is tube rolling for a pre-amp played through a SS amp a thing?
4) For someone like myself who is happy with the system and who is also easily frustrated by A/B testing is tube rolling the pre-amp even worthwhile? I can almost always hear a change when comparing various components but only rarely am able to say A is better or worse than B.
( I probably can't even articulate effectively what I look for in terms of SQ except that I like the bass to be tight, precise, well defined and not boomy. I do not like the music to be overly bright or tinny. I like depth and lushness but not overly warm. Not sure if these are things you alter with tubes.)
Thanks for any advice.
I did not choose this equipment; it was given to me. From what I can tell the original owner spent a good bit of time matching up these two components with the speakers, Aerial Acoustics 7Bs.
The tubes in the AR are original. Probably 10-15 years old? But with an extended period of not being used.
The system sounds good to me. I don't need to change anything.
However, I've been told that the tubes are old and may need to be replaced soon. I've also read a little bit about tube rolling but most of the articles I've seen talk mostly about tube rolling with amps and not pre-amps.
So I have some questions:
1) If the original owner wanted a system that sounded like a 'tube' system, why not have a tube amp and pre-amp? Does it make sense to have a tube pre but SS amp?
2) Other than outright failure, how will I know if my tubes _need_ to be replaced?
3) With a SS amp, will changing tubes in the pre-amp have a noticeable impact on SQ? In other words, is tube rolling for a pre-amp played through a SS amp a thing?
4) For someone like myself who is happy with the system and who is also easily frustrated by A/B testing is tube rolling the pre-amp even worthwhile? I can almost always hear a change when comparing various components but only rarely am able to say A is better or worse than B.
( I probably can't even articulate effectively what I look for in terms of SQ except that I like the bass to be tight, precise, well defined and not boomy. I do not like the music to be overly bright or tinny. I like depth and lushness but not overly warm. Not sure if these are things you alter with tubes.)
Thanks for any advice.
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- 75 posts total
- 75 posts total