Good idea to swap McIntosh amp stock tubes?

@emergingsoul 

How are you supposed to do do diligence when you buy a tube? Especially when they do labeling with so many different logos over the same exact tube being manufactured?

It’s been said countless times on on this forum to "buy your tubes from a reputable tube reseller", and taking it a step further - buy your tubes "from a tube reseller who actually uses a formidable curve-tracer tube tester" like Brent Jesse at audiotubes dot com does, or at least for vintage tubes that he does this for.  Find the same in a new tube reseller. I’ve tried them all and it can be hit & miss, check the return policy. The tube reseller/tester/validator you buy tubes from truly matters. Try it. 

I’ve been on a search for another new/re-issue small tube manufacturer who does the same before shipping out any pairs of re-issue new 12au7, 12at7, 12ax7s I buy.  @psvane @psvaneaudio  did the same for me on my last pair of 6SN7s. So far so good, it was a special replacement arrangement, and the preamp testing I’d been doing.  Ray (Apos) claims theirs are sourced (top 5%) and tested this way, and we know where those re-labled tubes come from, as another idea for you to try.  Let us know how it goes @emergingsoul  

I have bought from Jesse, and some of his tubes went bad after a while and it's not because of him it's just it was NOS, which are unpredictable.

As for these other tube sellers who knows what they do. They send out a lot of of tubes and the tube tester doesn't deal with issues that arise while tube is in use it may not be the best way to evaluate the tube.

Basically it's a crapshoot, and then you have manufacturers who put different logos on their tubes and no one has a clue where they come from or how they were manufactured. Claims are made all over the place and it's difficult to get comfortable with all these claims. I don't even know what McIntosh really does because I have problems with their tubes too.

@faustuss "Just look at them!"

so.. you are tube fashion designer, did I wrap your competencies right? 

@emergingsoul "...Claims are made all over the place and it's difficult to get comfortable with all these claims. I don't even know what McIntosh really does because I have problems with their tubes too."

Sure seems like a lot of issues going on there.  Honestly, not sure about others - i just don't have much of a problem with tubes going bad in my preamps, amplifiers, or DACs - at all, nadda.  Gotta ask, is there some kind of unstable electrical power or connectivity challenge between components occuring at all? Is there an audio and electric professional near you who can sit down and carefully evaluate your system, power, and connections at all?  i.e i had a bad power cap in an amp wreaking havoc in an older system years back.  Put it on a scope and got it resolved. It does not take much to create system instability, it can happen. Best of Luck.