tube upgrade for first sound

Congrats Paul. Make certain to follow Emmanuel's advice ... break in from the wall and stock for 30 days... and like Art suggested, a good powercord goes a long way on this preamp! I would highly recommend an Electraglide powercord, the "entry level" Mini Khan Plus can be had used for about $500 here on the 'Gon and does wonders, improved by the Ultra Khan II, as well as the Epiphany... depends on the cash outlay you want to spend.

After that you may want to look into NOS tubes, and there are threads on various tubes and the "house" sound they give in that preamp that are really quite accurate.

All in all, do follow the 30 day break in as you will "learn" the stock sound of the preamp, which will be hard to imagine it could improve at about 25 days... but it only gets better. :)

Congrats again on an excellent choice.

Paul-

Yes, as I can recall I do believe the break-in recommended from Emmanuel was 30 days of play. I personally did the 24/7 as it was the stock tubes and have a dedicated listening room, so keeping the system on at night doesn't affect others ability to sleep. The discharging of the caps does seem to help speed up the process as Emmanuel will tell you. Just remember to make sure the unit is also unplugged as well as turned off (if I remember correctly - lol has been some time). I think it may have been mostly broken in around 3 weeks or so when I started swapping stuff around, was impatient. Then I put it back to the stock power cord and such to wait that extra week, figured another few days won't hurt me. For when you are done, the unit does breathe easier and appreciated a good power cord, as well as NOS tubes take the performance to the next level. Hang in there.