Quote:
Originally Posted by tricolor
Good afternoon ALL!
Just a quick note to share the smile of ordering more Schiit... 
A Valhalla 2 is on my way, to join a Bifrost and Grado GS1000i, but also an older home theater receiver (Sony, solid state) along with KEF Q700 floor standing speakers...
I am sorry in advance for the stupid "tube/preamp" newbie questions/comments... I haven't been able to see this here or actually in any other forums, though I am pretty sure someone must have asked/answered already...
Is it a bad practice to replace tubes as they go bad and not by pairing them?
My understanding is that they might end up mismatched, but doesn't quite make sense to "waste" good tubes... Or mismatching them will lead to failure towards the good pair? If so, do we need to buy "a batch of matched tubes"? and then replace as they go bad?
(By pair, I mean, the other power/rectifier/preamp valve/tube. No, I am not thinking of replacing the full set... as that would make even less sense to me...)
Thanks in advance for your patience!
All the best!
Ed |
Assuming the tube does not go bad prematurely on you but lasts a good while, chances are the others are not too far behind. A matched set would of course be the optimal situation and a matched set of "better" tubes even better.
You can always just keep one of the tubes as a spare and see if you notice any channel imbalance if you have to swap it in as a replacement. If so, then you will know you need a matched pair. The Valhalla 2 stock tubes should last you a good amount though and I would suggest seeking better tubes in time to increase the level of listening satisfaction. The stock tubes in Valhalla 2 are a just a bit lean in the midrange to my ears but that was only discovered by comparison and certainly not terrible sounding. The Gold Lions were much better and there are other alternatives.