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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
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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.


jmphotography's avatar
jmphotography OP
161 posts
 
@tablejockey the actual lion holding the KT88 sign faces forward, the Gold Lion script lettering faces the rear. https://i.imgur.com/1yUdW2g.jpg
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austinstereo's avatar
austinstereo
61 posts
 
A key point about tube amps here.  If your amp does not have individual bias settings per tube, they must be a matched pair at least.  Ideally, all tubes should be matched in a channel, but pairs that share a bias setting must be closely matched.  Not all matching is created equal, but that's another can of worms.  
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