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Tube matching question

At the risk of this sounding like a dumb question I am going to ask anyway. I am new to tubes, so be gentle. I just received a quad of matched KT88's for my integrated. While so far they sound awesome there is one little thing that bothers me and I know its truly cosmetic, but one of the Gold lion labels is all messed up. It wouldn't make such a big deal but they face forward and you see these 3 beautiful looking gold lions and the one all messed up. When I asked the place about it they said thats the luck of the draw. I know cosmetics means nothing sound of course. My question is if I were to purchase another pair, how much would that mess up the matching if I were to replace 1 or 2 and then keep the others as a backup? Does that all sound dumb and I should just be happy they sound great?
Thanks
128x128jmphotography
jmphotography's avatar
jmphotography OP
161 posts
 
Thanks all, I am actually going to leave it be. They sound great, dead quiet and I had to spend the extra right now. The more I looked at it the more I realized the two middle ones were really bright gold and the 2 outer ones were more faint. I actually prefer the more subdued look as the bright gold logo can be a little too in your face. I enjoy the glow of the tubes so big bold labels kind of take away from that. I took a soft scotch brite and very very gently rubbed over the 2 center ones to tone down the logo a bit and blend with the other 2. I am fine with it now. Here is a pic. https://i.imgur.com/1yUdW2g.jpg
riley804
1,224 posts
 
starts with :

While so far they sound awesome there is one little thing that bothers me and I know its truly cosmetic, but one of the Gold lion labels is all messed up. It wouldn't make such a big deal but they face forward and you see these 3 beautiful looking gold lions and the one all messed up.
 
goes to :

Thanks all, I am actually going to leave it be.

wow.....
jmphotography's avatar
jmphotography OP
161 posts
 
@riley804 OK, so why is that a big wow? As I said it was a little thing, I was exploring options if I wanted to replace them for a slight cosmetic flaw. I chose not to. Not sure how that is a wow. 
riley804
1,224 posts
 
cause you started this thread with how it bothered you :

While so far they sound awesome there is one little thing that bothers me and I know its truly cosmetic, but one of the Gold lion labels is all messed up. It wouldn’t make such a big deal but they face forward and you see these 3 beautiful looking gold lions and the one all messed up.

and others told you to just buy 1 or 2 tubes and keep the others as spares......and now you decide not to do it and everything is fine now.....

that is the reason for the wow.....

and even though you have very little hours on these tubes......it would still be a good idea to have some spare tubes on hand just incase something does happen to one of them.
jmphotography's avatar
jmphotography OP
161 posts
 
@riley804 If you actually read my post I said I actually made changes to tone down the other 2 tubes so they looked more similar. I am sorry you felt I wasted your time and the other members because it didn't bother me enough after I made the changes to want to spend another $140 for cosmetic reasons. My apologies
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