Lowrider57, On tubes most of the time you get what you paid for, I agree with you, after paying premium price for my globe 6sn7 at Grant Fidelity , it made me realize what a high quality tube is all about.Though I did have luck buying tubes from Chinese 6sn7 dealers o Pavanedirect and HiFi ...
Is there a strategy in preamp tube placement?
My SLP-98 has a gain stage and a buffer stage, both with 6SN7 tubes. Do seasoned tube rollers look for different sound characteristics to occupy each position? ex. A tube with good tone and texture in the gain position and a tube with good dimensionality in the buffer stage, or do they use the same tube at both positions? Or is this process truly random?