What matters and what is myth...

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In Reply to: Re: Should I send 'em back? posted by royphil345 on April 18, 2007 at 09:59:46:

It sounds like you are new to buying tubes and/or using tube gear. Before you make your seller's life miserable, you need to learn a bit more about "how tubes are made and how they work"...
Electrons don't care what color, etc. your plates are. The two most important criteria are same/similar construction and matching electrical characteristics. This is the accepted definition of a matched pair. In fact, you may find an RCA and a GE with the same internal structure even though they are "labeled" differently.
Yes, 'in theory' the difference in plate color could cause a different tonal balance, but realize the specs between the caps and other parts in your phono amp are also not perfectly matched, so matching is a crap-shoot. Finally I would bet the tubes that came with your amp are not as closely matched as you think. Yes they may be from the same batch, but are they electrically matched as tight as you hope? Who knows...
While your expectations are understandable, they are not appropriate to buying tubes from any honest vendor I know of.
Please realize the manufacturing part-to-part variance between tubes in the same batch is quite high, so even if they have the same internal parts you can have differences in sound or electrical characteristics. It's called production variance. The premium quality tubes sold in the past were not necessarily built better, they were pulled and hand-tested at the factory to find closely matching tubes.
So, don't sweat stuff that doesn't really matter - plug those bad-boys in and enjoy. You won't get a better match in the real world although I'm sure someone out there would be willing to claim otherwise to get your money.
Cheers,
Pete

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Should I send 'em back? - royphil345 09:20:41 04/18/07 (9)

OK... I'll try 'em... - royphil345 11:30:13 04/18/07 (0)

this is why.... - analog guy 11:07:49 04/18/07 (0)

Bottom line is: how do they sound? There's only one way to find out...N/T - musetap 10:34:16 04/18/07 (0)

Re: Should I send 'em back? - royphil345 09:59:46 04/18/07 (2)

What matters and what is myth... - Pete Fowler 10:33:43 04/18/07 (0)

Put -em in! - Muzikmike 10:01:09 04/18/07 (0)

Matched means "electrically" matched - - kavakidd 09:36:52 04/18/07 (1)

Sorta kinda like our wives and ourselves? - Muzikmike 09:45:18 04/18/07 (0)

I always thought that a "matched pair" referred to the electrical characteristics,not the cosmetics. )MT( - J. S. Bach 09:34:17 04/18/07 (0)

Follow Ups

What matters and what is myth... - Pete Fowler 10:33:43 04/18/07 (0)

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