Is it common for tubes to outweigh the cost of the amp or preamp?

I'm always chasing better sound in one component or another.

I got these 1959 NOS Siemens Halske CCa's from Tube Museum for $640 after the ones I originally purchased were not in stock. Fingers crossed.

https://www.tubemuseum.org/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=SH_CCA-1959

@tablejockey I was never under the impression that I was buying magic. I'm just looking for moderate to good improvements in sound. Will I get that? I don't know.

I have gotten big improvements in sound from speaker cables, turntable cartridge, and speaker isolation. Improvements from interconnects have been negligible for me.

Headphone cables do make a difference but not enough to justify the price for me. Power cables are something I'd only upgrade if I didn't know what else to upgrade and had excess money lying around. And I don't know anything about fuses. I've seen people do crazy things like hang a string of beads from the ceiling or place a cello in a room to improve room dynamics. Keyword "Crazy". And I'm against pricey digital cables because... digital is digital. If I was going to buy all that stuff to bring the total to $2500 then maybe that attempt at an insult would have hit home. Sorry to let you down.

Of course I will be disappointed if there is no improvement in sound but that's a gamble I'm willing to take.

I appreciate all the feedback :)

I will chime in after work on the replies.

FYI the amp is a Woo Audio WA3. I've been using a Centrance Hifi-M8 for years with my HD800's and I've loved it. It was only recently when I picked up HD820's and plugged into my friends Bottlehead Crack that I realized I've been depriving myself. The OTL with those cans sounds so nice. Since I'm too lazy to build a kit amp I decided to go with the WA3 since it was similarly spec'd. I'm very impressed given the price.

And then... I googled "tube rolling". Whoops. So yeah, I got caught up in the hype. But if it's not hype and I do get a noticeable improvement then I'll be happy.

Thanks for the dialogue, folks!

Thoroughly enjoyed. But now wondering what these tubes will cost in 2050. I've got another 40 years of listening left in me. Longer if I download my brain into a robot.

@testpilot 

300B tubes can often exceed the cost of the amp.  

WOW! You aren't kidding. The manufacturer of my amp has a pair for $2k, FOR THE PAIR! Insanity. I'm feeling like I got off easy now.

@mijostyn Thanks. I'll look into those tubes. I'll be moving the NOS Siemens & Halske' to the WA2 next year when I do that upgrade which will leave two empty sockets in the WA3. Might give the RAM Labs a test and shelf them for when I upgrade. It'd be awesome if they sounded almost as good or even better at 1/3 the cost.

@jtcf 

One way to save a few $$ is to buy ugly tubes and pairs and quads that were all manufactured the same but we're labeled for various companies

I was originally going to pick up 3-4 pairs of those to experiment with because they were so cheap. They were called "Butt Ugly Tubes!" on the site I was looking at. Unfortunately they were all out of stock.

After some listening I am very happy with the purchase. From minute one, before any warming up or burning in, I noticed a significant improvement.

The new tubes have added so much detail to the highs and tightened up the low end which is resulting in a much bigger soundstage. They've given my HD820's a soundstage more comparable to how my HD800's were sounding with the stock tubes while still retaining the more full sound of the 820's. I'm also not experiencing the listening fatigue with my 820's like how I was with the stock tubes. I can listen to them for hours without a break now like I could before with my 800's.

Were they worth $640? For me, yes, and here's why. They are rated to last up to 15k hours so that comes to $0.04 per hour of listening. My turntable cartridge cost me $600 and is rated to last up to 2k hours which comes to $0.30 per hour of listening. So even if the tubes died after 2133 hours, that'd come to the same $0.30 per hour cost as my turntable cartridge. It was totally worth it for the improvement in sound I got when upgrading my cartridge. The improvement in sound from the upgraded tubes is just as significant and much cheaper when it comes to dollar per hour value. 

I look at tubes in the same light as my turntable cartridge. Better cartridges/tubes equate to better sound, and both wear out and need replacing so you're essentially paying by the hour with stuff like that. Considering it comes out to pennies on the dollar, I'd rather have a superior listening experience than pinch pennies and get subpar sound.

@rodman99999  Thanks. I think I'll have saved in the end by going for the gusto from the start and nixing the upgrade bug. The worst is doing a moderate upgrade and feeling like you've sidestepped more than stepped up and just kind of wasted your money.

If it's within a comfortable budget and I know I'll most likely end up there anyway, might as well go big vs stepping up the tube upgrade ladder and spending money on tubes that'll be shelved long before their life is up. Like if I have superior tubes, I can't see myself being like "hey let's swap in those old tubes that don't sound as good for nostalgia sake."

I feel like I can consider my new tubes a good "reference" pair. They exceeded my expectations. Now I can get a cheaper pair and REALLY see/hear if they are just as good. I'm not sure that everybody who says the "holy grail" tubes are a waste of money have actually heard them because I am blown away. It curbed my craving to do a quick upgrade of the power tube right away at least.

@rodman99999 Are date codes kind of like serial numbers for tubes?

My new tubes are date codes 262990 and 262928. I don't know the significance of the codes but I assume it's good that they're close in number.

They're also rated:
16.8mA/15.8mA & 15.8mA/15.8mA

I don't know what those milliamp ratings actually refer too. I'm a total newb her. Still learning.