I had a Philips NOS 12Ax7 self destruct right in front of me (years ago but clearly I'm still traumatized). Replaced under warranty by thetubestore.com with a pair of "preferred" 7025s which were simply OK…meh...Tried a set of Psvane 12ax7-ts and one of those failed also…so I finally bought a matched pair of Russian Gold Lion 12ax7s…matched sections, blah blah,…they're GREAT.
Tube Rolling with the Line Magnetic 518 IA
I recently took delivery of the fine Line Magnetic 518 IA. This is an excellent integrated except it comes with basic inexpensive tubes. I'm lloking to hear from those who have done any tube rolling with this amp and what combination turned out to be the most musical sounding. Also interested in how many hours it took to break in this amplifier.