Tubes


I have recently come upon a tube amp a yaqin mc 13-s. I have been reading up a bit on tubes and different things to get better sound. I have asked some questions about speakers on here and received great feedback and its all very much appreciated, you guys who gave me your best input thank you. 

I paired my yaqin with a pro-ject tube box s2. Prior to purchasing the pro-ject preamp I came across a shiit lyr 2 and used it for a short period, unfortunately I'm not into headphones and it didn't pair well in my system the volume just want there because it's not really a preamp it's a headphone amp. Long story short it had ecc88 orange globe amperex tubes and that thing sounded smooooootthhh. 

So I have a few questions?
1. Should I change all the tubes in my main amp to matching tubes? It uses qty 4 (6ca7's or el34b's), qty 2 (12ax7's) and qty 2 (12au7's) for example if I were to use tungsol 12au7's should I use tungsol for the 12ax7's and 6ca7's or could I use gold lions for the 6ca7's? Does it really matter?

2. How big of a difference does it really make changing preamp tubes? like I said earlier the schiit really sounded great and I could only attribute it to those tubes but correct me if I'm wrong? I didn't have any other tubes to try.

Thoughts and opinions are all welcome and appreciated. Once again thank you all for the advice.
gguy767
Tubes of course make a difference just like everything else. My experience (30 years) has taught me to replace tubes when they need replacing. Because for what they cost you can just about always get a lot more improvement from just about anything else. Especially considering with tubes you can’t even be sure of ANY improvement! No matter how much you spend. My favorite of all I have tried for example is JJ, one of the cheapest around. The most expensive ones I’ve tried 2 out of 5 failed in 4 months and weren’t even average before that. I know there are guys who will tell you tube rolling is the greatest thing since sliced bread. In 4 amps over 30 years and more sets than I know not one in all of them made me feel it was worth it. The mere fact that its tubes (and not SS) is half the battle. What’s left divides mostly between circuit topology, transformers, and parts quality (caps, diodes, resistors, wire, switches, etc). Hardly any of the "tube" sound you're hearing is the tubes themselves. Its mostly these other things. Its just that tubes are obvious, and audiophiles are anything but subtle.

Don’t expect a lot of agreement on that. But pay attention to those with differing views, to what exactly those views are based on. SOP.

The amp you’re thinking of buying tubes for- does it have a Synergistic Orange fuse? ECT? Quality power cord? Treated with Total Contact? Is it sitting on Cones or the factory feet? All those to me are far higher priorities than tubes.
As a man who owns all tube gear and has for 25+ years, the whole tube arena is not for novices. No insult here because I too, was one of those who learned about tubes the hard way; spending way too much, or not enough, seduced by NOS tubes when in practice I never really tried anything that is current, assuming NOS was just the best. Not always so. NOS tubes can be noisy, fail quicker (heck, a lot of them are older than me and that is saying a lot) and OVERPRICED. And yes, I meant to do all capital letters. Several very smart men who know a lot about tubes have mentored me over the years. Some of the best things they have taught me is where amps are concerned, the small signal tubes have more of an impact than the large power tubes. Not that power tubes cannot make a difference but in a matter of percentages, the smaller signal tubes can make a 50% difference or more compared to power tubes. Before you drop a fortune on NOS tubes, listen to some new production tubes. Jim McShane, a very knowledgeable tube man told me that new production is often better than NOS. I agree. I use several new production tubes that are as good if not better than NOS, and what is better yet, is that they are quiet.
There is so much to know about tubes. Tubes are like cables. There are the believers, non-believers, and also tubes can be tone controls. I would start out with the small signal tubes first, go with current production tubes first, and see what you think before dropping way too much on NOS tubes. As a side note, i own over 800 NOS tubes of various brands, sizes etc. and many times when you look inside my gear you will see a current production 6922 or 12AX7 because those are better. And believe me, I have a lot I could choose from that would be applicable to the equipment and its tube complement.
Sorry to be so long winded but tubes questions are not questions with easy answers. If so I would not own 800 tubes and not have been a student of tubes for 25+ years, No easy answer on this thread, at least IMHO.
@millercarbon wow that's a lot of information thank you.

As for the amp I really couldn't tell you. All I know is it was in my price range and I saw more positive than negative reviews about it. It's all factory stock as far as I know. It was actually found it a crate purchase and the guy I bought it from had no idea what it was so I paid about 300$ for it or something like that and got lucky it is in perfect condition. As far as i have seen they are about 700$. It was the best i could find in my price range and i have an affinity for tube, I realized this playing guitar tube just sounds so much better. Same with records vs cd, I will probably never buy another cd. I just like the sound of records its warm and if you ask me it was meant to be played through a tube amp imo. I don't plan to spend 1000ands and 1000ands I plan on doing the best I can with what I can afford. It just seemed to me as though tubes may be the easiest thing to change and it seemed as though the other preamp was just warmer in the system so i wanted to try replacing the tubes in my new preamp with the same type and see what happens just didn't know if i should change all the tubes or if i was wasting any time. If your curious about the amp here is a link to some info. https://toptubeamplifier.com/yaqin-mc-13s-push-pull-integrated-stereo-tube-amplifier/ . Thanks for all the input!