Great thread with a lot of good information. In the past, I have a Conrad Johnson PV8 which I think I ran in my system for well over 10 years and really never gave a thought about the tubes. At some point, I called CJ and asked for a set of replacement tubes. I got them and replaced them in the preamp and Holy Moly, the difference in SQ was absolutely astounding immediately! The preamp sounded fine before, but far more revealing with new tubes. You don't know what you are missing sometimes. Yearly replacement of tubes in general is unwarranted in my opinion, certainly not with input tubes as several above posters have noted.
Replace tubes yearly?
I just watched a Paul McGowan video (PS Audio) about the wisdom of leaving your gear powered on all the time. I get that. He also said that vacuum tube gear is the exception and not to leave it on all the time. I get that too.
But he also mentioned that it didn’t make a huge difference since you probably should replace your tubes every year.
Is that true? I have an Audio Research LS-16 tube preamp from the late 90s or early 2000s. I don’t think the tubes have ever been changed. I’m not really a ’tube’ guy but this unit was given to me 6 or 8 years ago. As far as I know these tubes are original.
At one point I got curious about the different sound quality potential of different tubes and another Audiogon member lent me a set of tubes to try out. I could definitely tell a difference but did not think the new ones sounded better than the original ones. I mention this because at that time the original tubes were quite old and still sounded quite good. And still do.
So, bottom line is, is there any real need to replace tubes on a schedule of some sort. Maybe its different if it is an amp versus a pre-amp?
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”Don’t mean to change the subject but looks like some experts with tubes in here, what’s the best NOS 6SN7 for a nice warm tone you have used?”
Personally, I’ve been using a pair of Tung-Sol 6F8G tubes (in a 20+ year old Tektron TK2A3/50/300 amp) for several years now with an adapter. Ran them for a year in a 300b SET amp I built and I’m back to the Tektron running EML 2A3 mesh tubes. 300b sits while I try and decide which equipment I’ll miss less when I pack it up for our move to TN. Aside from those, I like 1940’s-era Sylvania 6SN7WGTB tubes; have a matched set I bought from Brent Jesse and have gotten a lot of use out of those… still prefer the 6F8g or VT99 tubes. My “test song” for tube rolling is Michael Hedges’ “Aerial Boundaries” off the 1982 (?) LP. YMMV. Me, I’m trying to spend my children’s inheritance so they won’t be spoiled when I’m gone. |
@larryi you make a good point about tube testers, most testers also don't test the tubes at the same operating parameters that they will be used in. |
I second the recommendation for the early Sylvania 6SN7 tubes. Specifically the ones with the triangular plates. |
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