Upgrading specific components in a tube amplifier
Hello everyone,
First of all, thank you for the warm welcome to these forums. It has already been an incredibly helpful place, and I’m learning more each day.
I’ve really enjoyed reading about different people’s journeys in HiFi, and I find the reflections along the way both insightful and inspiring.
Recently, I came across an article where someone, while introducing their system, described making minor upgrades to their amplifier—such as changing output capacitors, tube sockets, and resistors. I’m starting to understand the role of each component in an amplifier, but I’d love to hear from those with firsthand experience in upgrading these parts.
In your experience, do such modifications lead to noticeable improvements in sound quality, or do they risk altering the original design in ways that might not be beneficial?
Looking forward to your insights!
Here is a thought mentioned on the other thread. Skip the Yamamoto 3w+3w amp and buy an AudioNote OTO SE 10w amplifier to go along with your desired AN speakers you mention. You can order it with proven caps and resistors, no guessing and screwing around. They come up 2nd hand used rarely. Truly - this will save you a ton of wasted time and guess work allowing you to start listening to speakers/amp/parts components inside all designed to work together from the get-go. I only share this IF your real goal is not fooling with widget component changes and more about listening to music sooner. They spend 1000s of hours testing/trying/listening to their designs. Many of us here here swap caps/diodes/resistors thinking we can outsmart the original amp designers, and it works sometimes, not all of the time. In the case of AudioNote amps/speakers working together well, Peter and team at AN truly know what they are doing. Go listen and compare at a show if you can somehow. Just a timesaver tip fwiw, best of luck.
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Zero, negative, local, global feedback, and more debated here over the decades on Audiogon. Search and check out some of the long threads about this too. Regardless of the amp designer and circuit design chosen, I always go back to what sounds most musical to my ears given different tube sets and speaker pairing too. As long as you know what sort of sound you are looking for, you are well on your way, and enjoy the music!
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