Tube break-in

lomic

Is it recommended to have a source playing through a pre-amp when breaking in tubes, or is it enough to simply have them turned on? Got my JJ's yesterday and had them on for about 15 hours but without playing anything through them.

Couldn't do a proper listening session tonight, but I popped in the Oh Brother Where Art Thou SACD and am quite impressed with how tame the highs and more pronounced mids (good thing for the ole' lsi9's) than the Amprex Holland NOS tubes Gary sent with the ELP. Most noted improvement - the Banjo(?) on the final track no longer has a note with an annoying resonance. I'll leave my final judgment for Hell Freezes Over though, since I consider it to be the source I have best "memorized" the sound.

After only 15 hours though I'm quite impressed for a $20 purchase.

organ

The JJ 6922 are excellent tubes. I love mine.

I think you're ok with the burn-in without music playing. As long as you have the B+ going, you're good.

Thinking about selling those Bugle Boys?

cmy330go

I asked the guy who sold me my new tube integrated about break-in. (Just so happens he designed it too). Anyway I asked virtually the same question. He told me that just having it on would break it in. However he said that playing music through it would break it in a little quicker since the filiments in the tubes vibrate slightly when playing.

Sounded reasonable to me. He claimed most tube gear will break in fully in around 100 hours.

Enjoy the new tubes!

lomic

Thinking about selling those Bugle Boys?

I wasn't under the impression they were Bugle Boys - if so I'd be fairly disappointed in them. These Amperex sounded good, except like I said I didn't think the highs were too great on many recordings. Not what I would have expected from the legendary BB's.

Here's a picture of one of the tubes, the only one with any writing left on it - the other is completely devoid of markings. They also produce different brightness, which I assume is not a desired trait in a pair of tubes. Check out my reflection on the top of the tube, fear my Nikon 990 with megaflash.

lomic

They're at the 30 hour mark and finally a chance to really listen to them.

Detail on them is amazing, almost to a fault. I'm not use to hearing every slight reverb on every guitar string pluck and every change in inflection in the voice.

Highs, while controlled, are too bright - if that makes any sense. There's a ceiling where they round off nicely, but it's bringing too much up to that ceiling.

Bass is great, STF-2 amazes yet again with improved rate of attack and tightness.

Imaging is uncanny, 2 voices right next to each other are very well defined and seperated. Unfortunately these JJ's are a bit laid back at the moment - with the LSi's it doesn't seem to be a good thing, as I feel a little disinvolved with the music. Hopefully this will change after a longer burn in period.

organ

Iomic,
Thanks for the excellent pic. Are they 6DJ8 or 6922? I'll still buy them off you if you want to sell them. It's normal for them to have different brightness intensity. It just depends on how the filaments were wounded up in the heater. The closer they are to the opening on the top and bottom part of the heater, the brighter the glow.

On the JJ. I don't think you will hear anymore improvements after 50hrs. This is usually the case with signal tubes. I had no idea you wanted a more forward presentation. The sound of those JJ's are very similar to a Mullard 6DJ8 I have. The JJ have much better bass and upper bass while the Mullard is a little sweeter in the mids and highs. If you want a more forward sound, EH is the tube for you. I used one for a while and thought it was too forward for my system but it may be the right one for you. The bass on EH is great but won't sound as robust as JJ.

Maurice

HBombToo

Break in without a source will provide "some" benifit across the anode and grid plates. A true DC "break in" will reduce micro protusions on the surface of the plates but would have to happen by at least by double the operating voltage if not more.

IMHO the true "breaking in" will occur with the cathode being excercised. As the cathode rms temp increases above the steady state temp or the "filament temp" more and more electrons will become available through thremionic emission. The more available electrons that are available will have very noticable differences in tube resistance and capacitance.

HBomb

beardog03

HBombToo wrote:

Break in without a source will provide "some" benifit across the anode and grid plates. A true DC "break in" will reduce micro protusions on the surface of the plates but would have to happen by at least by double the operating voltage if not more.

IMHO the true "breaking in" will occur with the cathode being excercised. As the cathode rms temp increases above the steady state temp or the "filament temp" more and more electrons will become available through thremionic emission. The more available electrons that are available will have very noticable differences in tube resistance and capacitance.

HBomb

so in other words...playing music through them will make them "break in"
faster/better..?!!

** I`m kinda slow sometimes **

HBombToo

Yes Sir!

beardog03

kewl..!!

I`ve been playin music real low round the clock for about a week now just to break `em in..!!