Biasing your Tubes to your Room


As I move down the road of enjoying an all analog system, every once in a while there seems to be some kind of breakthrough accidental or otherwise. Whether it being moving into a quality tube amp, or adding another pair of speakers to the output chain,
today I was switching around my output tubes on my Scott 340B.
I was getting a bit more sound out of my right channel than my left.. and this has been going on for quite some time. Subtle enough to not be overly concerned, but always there
ever so slightly.

However, my readings were spot on as far as millivolts go.

So I decided to just trust my ears and tune the bias screws
to my ears.

I literally took the listening experience to another level.

Now the question remains.. by supplying a bit more juice to the left channel.. is it my ears? the room itself? The tubes?

Ultimately it's a listening experience.. and although using the bias to tune to your room or you.. is not conventional wisdom, it's without a doubt tuned the experience very tight and offering a much more refined listening experience.

While some might suggest I am shortening the lifespan of my tubes, I don't really mind replacing them a year early if the quality of the experience is substantially superior to what the technical specs suggest or insist.

Anyone had a similar experience?
astralography

Showing 2 responses by astralography

The output tubes are about a year old.. and the amp was properly restored by a well known professional.. however, he is over on the other coast.. so I am reluctant to send it over.

My system has never sounded better than it does now.. so it's hard to want to change anything. The bias adjustment I made was about a quarter of a turn.. nothing too extreme.. just a fine tuning to my ears.

I am just suggesting the question..

trust your voltmeter or your ears?