Tube Rolling and the Quest for "perfect sound"

If you are seriously driven by a 'Quest for Perfect Sound' you are already doomed to failure. It doesn't exist, in audio or anything for that matter. You could be as happy with multiple possibilities just as much as one. It's OK to like Blonds, Brunettes, and Redheads, just remember Blonds generally cost more to maintain. But they can all work well for you. :-)

To me the opportunity to achieve the tone I want to get from my system by tube selection is invaluable. But the thing that is essential to achieving anything worthwhile is to have a sonic frame of reference in the first place otherwise you are chasing a fantasy that may not exist with your (or any) equipment. If you don't know what you want you'll never know when you have it. The clouds won't just part and the sun suddenly beams in.

If you know what you want your golden. If you don't you're going to have to get out and see what is possible for you in your home and with your budget.

LOL! Remember, different is not necessarily better, different is only different. Relax and enjoy the music.

some people in this hobby are a bit obsessive compulsive

myself included

it is fun but often a sideways step

imo ymmv of course...

More often than not a tube CD player will sound best with the tubes it was designed with. Not all tubes are equal and to really hear how these tubes are changing the sound you should bias each and every tube you try. The problem is there are no bias adjustments for these tubes, so you are not getting a true representation of each tubes effect on the sound.

Excerpt from Wikipedia on the subject of Psychoacoustics:
"Hearing is not a purely mechanical phenomenon of wave propagation, but is also a sensory and perceptual event; in other words, when a person hears something, that something arrives at the ear as a mechanical sound wave traveling through the air, but within the ear it is transformed into neural action potentials. These nerve pulses then travel to the brain where they are perceived. Hence, in many problems in acoustics, such as for audio processing, it is advantageous to take into account not just the mechanics of the environment, but also the fact that both the ear and the brain are involved in a person’s listening experience.”

I guess its one of those things that just can’t be said too often: There is no perfect sound. There is no absolute right choice. The quest for perfection or even the "right choice" is noble, only if one takes pleasure in the rewards of the never ending journey.