For those of you who have been tinkering with reduced tube complements and changing the operation of the amplifiers, this might have been said already but when you do that, you are altering the relationship between the tube and the transformer in a way that may not favor the reduced tube complement or triode operation.
This is because the transformer windings present a specific impedance to the tubes. If the tubes are wired for triode, their output impedance is usually lowered, and this may mean a mismatch between the tubes and the transformer: coloration. Ditto for removing tubes from the amp.
My point: this is not the best approach if you really want to audition the differences. Some triode/pentode switches, FWIW, are effective and others are not, so this issue gets tricky enough that you could be dealing with a red herring.
Just my 2 cents....
This is because the transformer windings present a specific impedance to the tubes. If the tubes are wired for triode, their output impedance is usually lowered, and this may mean a mismatch between the tubes and the transformer: coloration. Ditto for removing tubes from the amp.
My point: this is not the best approach if you really want to audition the differences. Some triode/pentode switches, FWIW, are effective and others are not, so this issue gets tricky enough that you could be dealing with a red herring.
Just my 2 cents....