Quad Tube Rolling

If your phono stage and preamp allow balanced connections you should 'em. Otherwise single ended works fine.

However, just to be sure the "contacts" everyone is referring to are the RCA and or XLR cables on the input and outputs?

????  All comments/post made are in reference to changing tubes.  No comments were made with respect to how to connect the phono stage within one's system i.e. single ended RCA or balanced XRL.

Ok, i learned quite a bit from everyones feedback thus far. The consensus seems to be; i have already gained any audible improvement by rolling the right or "gain side" of tubes. No point in going any further with different tubes on the cathode side. However, just to be sure the "contacts" everyone is referring to are the RCA and or XLR cables on the input and outputs?

Best answer goes to @testpilot . I'm a tube roller and very often swapping the cathode followers can make an audible difference. It mostly depends on the circuit design. 

BTW, all the tubes in your preamp are output tubes. They include the gain stage and the cathode followers.

Speaking from actual experience, I’ve rolled the "quad" of tubes in my original version Freya often to get to what I prefer, and tried mixing the input and "left side" tubes all to interesting effect. I wound up preferring NOS GEs and Sylvanias, and am currently using 4 matched GEs. Note that cleaning the contacts will help make the system work as it should, but Millercarbon’s condescending claims of "10 times better" with a ridiculous fuse swap is just another opportunity for him to embarrassingly grab at another hyperbolic SR promotion. The fuse swap can and will do nothing except cost you 175 bucks. Tubes are an active component with an obvious effect on the tone, fuses are not an active component as they’re fuses, and any working fuse (like the one you already have) just sits there waiting to blow when needed, not unlike 

Broadly speaking, the smaller tubes higher up the foodchain (i.e. closer to the input signal) are going to make a bigger difference to the sound.  Whether that change is a plus or minus is a whole other question.

Sorry, can't help myself, because for me all questions of this nature translate as "is blah blah blah the best use of my $x?"

Because, if its literally a question of "will I hear a difference?" then yes, you will. There is always a difference. There will always be a "noticeable difference."

But in terms of is it cost-effective or does it make sense? Not usually. Not viewed in terms of is there more improvement to be had more easily somewhere else? An answer that almost always comes down to, well, not likely.

In this case for example for $175 you could get one Synergistic Orange Fuse which yes the tubes MIGHT be a LITTLE better but the fuse WILL absolutely be about TEN TIMES better. So no, I would say tube rolling is a waste of time.... unless and until you have done a whole bunch of other stuff first.

I worry that by "whole bunch of other stuff" you think I mean money. No. I mean a whole bunch of other stuff. Like cleaning all the contacts. Which if you're like everyone else you've not done in the last year. If ever. Which in that case if you do it now, then listen to the difference, that right there is probably the same or more than what you can expect for your $175 in new tubes.

Perspective. Makes all the difference.

IME rolling input tubes will have a very noticeable effect on sound quality.It 'fine tunes' the tone of the entire system,to my ears anyway.

When you say input side are you talking about the tubes that act as a cathode follower (left side tubes)?  These tube are used to convert the high impedance signal coming from the previous gain stage to a low impedance signal.  A cathode follower has no gain at all. 

Unlike a gain stage where you will get almost unanimous consensus that rolling tubes will affect the sound, you will get mixed comments on the effects of rolling cathode followers.  My advice would be to try for yourself.

YES! 

Sorry for the confusion. I did roll the output from 6SN7GTB (Russian) to Sylvania 5692 and noticed an improvement. Question is, would rolling the input side create an improvement as well.   

You post is confusing.  Are you asking it changing the input tubes on your Quad amp will improve the sound?  It sound like you have already rolled tubes in your Schiit Freya???