If anyone is still looking for a SLP-98

@billpete what tubes did your 98P F1 come with?

Hey, before spending more on tubes, it’s worth opening the bottom, taking a photo of which oil filled caps are in it. Are they gold color Jensen or Jupiter, or something else. The sound changes notably with different coupling caps, or different 6SN7s, and different interconnects can impact the sound. Depending which way you want to go, softer/smoother, or more detailed and more open, we can help steer you on cap changes to fwiw. A local tech can swap caps pretty easy later if necessary.  

Once we know the tubes and caps, you can also try different 6SN7s up front which can go in either direction as well.

@billpete I believe I was told Jensen caps. The tubes are EH 6SN7, I think 2 are gold and two are not. AU’s and AX’s are JJ. Probably not what I want to hear. I have quite a lot of vintage AU’s and AX’s and variants that will be better than JJ’s.

Most of us put the original EH 6SN7s back in their boxes and stored with the factory preamp box to be used for future resale of the preamp. My least favorite tubes compared to others in the 98. As for small 12Au.. tubes, it sounds like you already know what to do there. I keep and run an all-new reissue set of tubes, and another vintage set I roll in rarely.

To start, I’d recommend keeping the Jensen caps installed for a while, you might like then with th right tubes in the unit. And getting ready to acquire and try a great quad of 6SN7s paired with a few of your best 12A... small tubes first. If that preamp has been sitting a while, give it at least a week to settle back in.

Also, trying a good pair of pure copper interconnects, and silver over copper interconnects can bring out a different presentation in that preamp. Worth trying a few different pairs/types for source/input and output to your amp(s). Keep us posted how it goes in a few weeks.

@billpete ...2nd owner who bought it to pair with a Cary tube amp 12 something or other.

Probably either the Cary V12, 12i, 12R amp, and I owned one for many years along with a few colleagues. Without a good local tech or Cary agreeing to service the 87lb monster, this happens. Many paired the SLP-98 pre with it or still do.

Maybe you could just plug it in and let it play on/off for a week solid, and make sure all is okay and nothing shorts out. Let those EH tubes burn, some say they are "okay" with more time, yet I will say I tried mine for a while and did not enjoy them. 

For an entirely different thread, or you can search old threads - many of us have posts out there about our batches of vintage and/or new re-issue 6SN7s. PSVANE direct (mfg) just sent me some replacement CV-181TIIs I like quite a bit, and I still have a few quads of TJ Full Music 6SN7s I run in my SLP-98L now. Mix them too.

Sounds as good or better than many of my vintage ones. The TJFMs (now sold to PSVANE Co.) have lasted well last 2 years, and time will tell on the new PSVANEs. I helped a friend with his integrated amp and we recently installed the new Horizon series in his. A little more detailed than former versions. With these, I keep my vintage 6SN7s mothballed and stored away and break them out once a year fwiw.

@billpete do you think you'll just return it -or- possibly asking the seller to take it to a local tech to figure out where the power stops at the PS or tracing through inside the preamp with a volt meter etc - 

Was it flopping around in the box when you unpacked it?  Being careful to not arch across the caps, can you tell if anything came loose inside rattling itself apart during shipping?

Nice easy find @billpete and this is good news, happy for you. Okay, let that baby bake in for a week with the supplied tubes and maybe turning it on/off a few times cycling the tubes hot cold a few times. Two of my own Cary amps and preamps had the Jensen Gold oilers and they are not too bad. I left mine in the 98 pre as-is, and chose not to use the same Mundorf EVO SGOs like I have in my amps though.  

It'll be interesting to get your thoughts after you and your ears settle in with it more.
Happy Listening for the weekend! :) 

@billpete I seem to draw static charges and get shocks when no one else does. 

Your system likes you and is pulling you in to become part of the electrical and audio circuit now, LOL.  On that note, surely you are well aware, in any case, be sure not to touch a screwdriver or metal object on the screw heads or ingoing leads on any of those capacitors in the power circuit or signal path. Interesting about it having hexfreds in your preamp too.  Keep us posted on the listening notes every few days and whether you like it or not.  Others will follow this thread later too.