Question on Tube Swapping and Biasing

Thanks for your suggestions. Obviously there's a variety of opinions on how to approach this! 

From a dealer / manufacturer point of view, they obviously want to err on the side of caution and recommend that you use a professional audio repair shop to carefully check the bias on a regular basis. So I suppose that's one end of the spectrum. 

I was told by the Luxman guy that, since I stupidly removed the original JJ tubes without noting which one went where, if I out them back in I'd have to bias the JJ tubes all over again. The Gold Lion are indeed a matched set. So technically I need to bias the tubes. 

Then again, I've had the amp 5 years without worrying about bias at all. I'm sure it's changed over time. 

Have to say, I'm more confused than before!

Sounds too complicated for me.  Think I'll stay with a SS upgrade.

VTL bias meter

This is a great way to safely check bias   

Getting ideal performance, prolonged life, .... may be nice, but ’not ideal’ is still ok, unless they glow too bright, seem too hot.

Not even knowing bias existed, I listened to tubes for many years, this thing had more tubes than you could shake a stick at, I inherited it in 1973, age 25

https://www.audiogon.com/systems/11420

Fisher 80AZ Mono blocks. Never biased them for 50 years! I had them worked on, resistors replaced, perhaps they were biased by others and I never knew it.

I Have 3 Fisher 500C Tube Receivers, had one Fisher 800C, used them for years,

have my own tube tester, and a large collection of new and used tubes. 

replaced old weak tubes, ones with shorts, ... with good used or new

Never a problem, nothing ever glowed too much or burned obviously hot

I bought a Cayin A88T tube amp on eBay, designed for KT88’s, came with 6550s. Did the seller re-bias for the 6550’s when he put them in?

I read about bias, it has internal adjusters, no meters, so I gave it to Steve Leung at VAS (former Cayin USA Rep) to re-bias for the KT88’s.

I hear no difference, they never were suspicious, and, who knows, perhaps the original factory bias was better for my KT88’s than the 6550’s it came with.

Don’t let too much knowledge keep you from enjoying your Luxman.

I think I wasted both time and money having my Cayin biased.

You can spend more and get more advanced testers, but having your own basic small portable tester keeps you and your friends from being blind.

 have this model 157, I also like their model 257, got one for a friend, had big Jackson, it always agreed with my little 157, gave the Jackson to a friend.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/177457357851?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D294758%2C292554%26meid%3Dba91f13ba5774b0ead496d49c5da645b%26pid%3D101875%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D397016258753%26itm%3D177457357851%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2332490%26algv%3DSimVIDwebV3WithCPCExpansionEmbeddingSearchQuerySemanticBroadMatchSingularityRecallReplaceKnnV4WithVectorDbNsOptHotPlRecallCIICentroidCoviewCPCAuto&_trksid=p2332490.c101875.m1851&itmprp=cksum%3A177457357851ba91f13ba5774b0ead496d49c5da645b%7Cenc%3AAQAKAAABcG96wQ16jds4VFcrhy1F3d4mbwZUJI9Fs%252BgdXYAHIzlX2e3YaNh7x%252BEnKA3G%252BCqSl1Xn4McfcWFK1GytmS2qxJ87mtE8Gm3iR1Ja4WBwh0hNHJrJx3Ki5mp04ow4CO7lP%252BooCybZDDU%252BbbSwmg7CbTin%252BBzBzbCYVnbjvyQAHu6--HI4MB7SvJl5IJqlyvomgoLMlgT6qAJzX0SANJhty2dzQEAzlfRScS9yTNHoWOtgMUFlJnwRf1UyDwRb6Xe%252BBy6pTkZHULgNE25HGMS4l4xRlqMR9Ofl8TCXgBmU71Lt9sIXmo2aBZb%252FcZE2KCNho7r9%252F0AK7hKLmep4hjTRPd4BAxP5GvKn50Ux%252BRqF8LXvN2M3W%252FhwX8%252FWLR73gO8SEZI1VMCOf6HrF7NPfLt4Ie%252F3kNB3DyqDdqBC5TlgPcvaZOdfjKMlIEXcJv6cW9zWQla7dX%252BUNCBBX0q2ly7SxYrY0KtT%252BiAPOM4vvCvIb4AA%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A2332490&itmmeta=01K8RDB8N47XGW94TBP4FQ8D1F

used working 257