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Tube matching question

At the risk of this sounding like a dumb question I am going to ask anyway. I am new to tubes, so be gentle. I just received a quad of matched KT88's for my integrated. While so far they sound awesome there is one little thing that bothers me and I know its truly cosmetic, but one of the Gold lion labels is all messed up. It wouldn't make such a big deal but they face forward and you see these 3 beautiful looking gold lions and the one all messed up. When I asked the place about it they said thats the luck of the draw. I know cosmetics means nothing sound of course. My question is if I were to purchase another pair, how much would that mess up the matching if I were to replace 1 or 2 and then keep the others as a backup? Does that all sound dumb and I should just be happy they sound great?
Thanks
jmphotography

Showing 1 response by tomcy6

tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,625 posts
 
Agree with tablejockey, the tubes in your avatar have the PrimaLuna logo on them. If your amp is a PrimaLuna, it has adaptive autobias, which makes tube matching less important. Prima Luna says they don’t even have to be the same tube type, which means you could use a KT120 with your KT 88s in a pinch.

If you have a Primaluna and plan to keep it for a while, order a pair of Gold Lion KT 88s and at least one of them should have a perfect logo and you’ll have a pair of backup tubes should you have any problem with your tubes.
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