one thing not mentioned so far: diagnosing pre-amp tube problems is a pretty simple exercise, and you can do it without a tube tester. If you get bad noises (of any kind) in one channel only, turn off the pre, unplug it, switch the tubes from L to R, one set at a time (input, output - I'm assuming there are more than 2 tubes in your pre....) and see it the problem moves after you power up again - that isolates the problem so you can figure out which tube to replace.
New to tubes
I just got a Musical Fidelity X-pre preamp, which contains two tubes (KT-88's I think). How do tubes age? Will I hear a deteriation in sound? Or will this go so slow my ears will adapt to it, so I won't notice it? Or will they just quit working when there too old?
Basically: how do I know when it's time to change them?
Thanx in advance.
Basically: how do I know when it's time to change them?
Thanx in advance.