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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
sandthemall
544 posts
 
I say just leave it as it is. Your tubes will last a long time with the Primaluna. During that time, you’ll probably accidentally rub off logos from the other tubes.
testpilot
951 posts
 
If the GL logo is not etched into the glass, you can always remove the logos from the tubes
bsmg
296 posts
 
Yep; that would have been my suggestion; wipe them all with an alcohol pad and be logoless. None of my fifty plus year old Dutch EL34’s have anything more than a vestige of the original logos. The production codes near the bottom of the glass are still visible though.
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tablejockey
3,916 posts
 
   "I enjoy the glow of the tubes so big bold labels kind of take away from that."

It's been awhile since I bought a new Gold Lion tube for my PL HP. One thing I noticed about GL tubes, the logo faced to the rear of the amp, so no visible label. Either the labels or socket orientation is different on current stuff.

You won't be replacing many worn tubes in you PL. The power/signal tubes will fail from reasons other than being overdriven.


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