Tube preamp noise

I got NOS Sylvania GTB tubes and 1960's Russian tubes. They sound equally good, but got Russian tubes at the same price as Chinese ones, much cheaper than Sylvania tubes. Sounds notably better than the Chinese.

For the microphonic noise, the Russian tubes are much quieter. No more foot step echos. The Sylvania tubes are still prone to some noise, even though they are less noisy than the old tubes came with the preamp.

I would highly recommend those 60's Russian made 6SN7s.

A simple way to isolate from rack noise or foot-falls is to float the component on a partially inflated inner tube made for a child's bike.

I could not notice any microphonic problem with the new Chinese tubes. I have 10 used 6SN7 GT/GTA/GTB tubes form GE, Sylvania, and EH, and they all suffer microphonic rather severely. With a gentle touch on the amp case will generate an echo on the speaker. Gentle footstep near the amp does the same thing.
I just ordered tube dampers, and I will see how much they would reduce the problem. The Chinese tubes produced rather flat sound. I will see if they will make any difference after several days. I would rather use the old tubes than the Chinese tubes if the microphonic problem is lessened or if the Chinese tubes do not improve considerably over time.

I also ordered NOS Sylvania GTB tubes with green label and chrome tops, and will see how they would do.

I don't think I've ever had a 6SN7 (or many other types) that are not microphonic to one degree or another. Unless the problem is severe it doesn't indicate that the tube is not performing well in other respects or that the tube will fail prematurely. Minimize it with tube dampers & decouple the component from the rack. If slightly microphonic NOS tubes sound better than Chinese, then use them!

"You might buy some new production 6SN7 tubes...like Shuguang...and install those. The new tubes should not be microphonic, especially if they are purchased from a dealer that screens for this problem."

I got Shuguang 6SN7, and yes, I found they do not suffer from the microphonic problem. From new fresh out of the box, they do not sound as good as Sylavania or GE, but at least I am glad to find out the problem wss due to old/bad tubes, not to the sockets or other parts of the preamp.
Thanks!

Socket replacement? It is an easy job?
How often a socket can go bad? Is it a common problem for tube amp/preamp?

Thanks much for your help.

Furthermore, among 4 sockets, one socket always generates more tapping noise regardless whatever combination of tubes used.

This might also indicate that a tube socket needs to be replaced.

Thanks,
I may contact VTS later. The preamp is 4~5 years old and uses 4 6SN7s. It came with 4 sets of 6SN7 GT, and 2 GTAs and 2 GTBs. All tubes generated microphone tapping sound on tapping with the eraser end of a pencil. Small bumping sound appear to be OK but I found two GTAs are much worse than others. The GTA and GTB sets generate much worse cracking (or whatever) noise than 4 GTs. Among 4 GTs, one seems to generate more noise.

Furthermore, among 4 sockets, one socket always generates more tapping noise regardless whatever combination of tubes used.

I mixed (those seemingly good) 3 GTs and 1 GTB, and the tapping noise got reduced a little bit, but now there is more hum noise. Is it OK to mix GT and GTA/GTB?

I guess for many tube amp owners such problems are not uncommon, and hope my preamp is not defective other than tube problems.

Many thanks.
I will try to find a bad tube. Well, one of my friends is a strong bias on tubes and almost forced me to buy a tube preamp when I was about to upgrade, but I am not new to tubes. I may be forever like that. ;-(

Anyway, thanks for your help. My preamp uses 6SN7.
I will try to find a bad tube and replace with another, and see if the problem goes away.

It would help to know which particular preamp you got and what types of tubes it uses?

Some types of tubes are more "microphonic" than others. Other times it's just a bad tube and a replacement is all that's needed. Beyond that, it's the implementation or construction of the component.