Thanks for everyone’s responses - I appreciate your feedback and guidance!
I found Brent Jessie’s site and Joe’s Tube Lore very informative, and Andy Bowman’s Vintage Tube Services site looks fascinating. I've been hanging out at Upscale Audio's website a lot too (they recently changed the format of the site and I prefer the old version).
Looks like the consensus here is that the preamp tubes tend to have a bigger effect on sound quality than the output tubes (generally). Popular opinion on the ‘net seems to agree. I like newbee’s suggestion of “start with power tubes and then fine tune the tone by changing small tubes”.
>> One follow-up question: <<
- When breaking-in tubes, does a musical signal need to be playing through them in order to break them in? Or is simply having the amp powered on enough to break them in?
Mostly due to crappy room acoustics, my current system tends to be lean in the bass/mid-bass region, and is easily excitable in the mid-highs and highs. I’m learning that I kind of enjoy that classic “tubey” euphonic sound – warm, rich, lush harmonics, slightly full bass, extended but smooth highs, etc. I was reading about the classic Mullard NOS sound as being that way, and the reviewer described it as having a “tweedy harmonic overdrive”. Fascinating how that makes sense to me.
To think of all the time I've spent listening to solid state, even good solid state, and have been missing out on what it turns out I actually prefer in tube sound.
Thanks again for everyone’s 2 cents!
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