Tube install question

txcoastal1

Starting the tube rolling adventure in my first piece of tube equipment, a Melody Valve 101 preamp
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0311/melody_valve_hifi_pure_black_101.htm

Qty.(2)-101D tubes are output tubes (main signal amplifiers) one per channel. They are directly heated filamentary triodes that the amplifier uses.

Qty. (1)-5AR4 tube is a full wave rectifier. single

Qty. (4)-6SN7 tubes serve as a gain stage before the output tubes.two per channel

Here's my question, when installing I received 2 matched pairs of 6SN7's:
1st pair GM1#'s 3200 and GM#2's 3200
2nd pair GM1#'s 3300 and GM#2's 3300

Do I need to install each matched pair per channel or do I split up the match and install them horizontally across both channels

Thanks in advance
Ron

heiney9

Driver tubes don't need to be matched like output tubes do. If you have a manual bias for the output tubes then that's not even necessary, IMO.

Of course the better matching the better and you don't want more than a 20% mis-match between triodes or pairs. But I can bet no one here can hear a difference between perfectly matched triodes and and a 10-15% difference in GM.

In the above example, it doesn't matter. I usually position the tubes where I can see the labels

H9

txcoastal1

Thanks Brock

I had ordered some RCA VT231 from Brent Jessee and installed them last week, after about 15min. a heard a pop and then a bad hiss out of one my speakers, one of the tubes glass had cracked around the base. Then reinstalled the stock tubes and everything was fine. Then put my Shuguang treasures CV181 that THSmith sold me still all good.

Brent sent me a new one at no charge but wanted to make sure I didn't make some kind of newbie mistake and caused the problem.

Thanks again

brgman

I like to use DeOxit on mine as it not only cleans them up but also lubes them a bit and reduces the pressure when installing/removing