Is matched and balanced tubes generally an hoax?

[microstrip]

Sellers usually match tubes at a determined but unspecified point of operation. Most probably this point of operation is different from that of your equipment, and there will be some unequal drift of the parameters due to this alteration.

I match my tubes exactly at the same Ia and Va of the circuit where they will be used.

 

[c1ferrari]

Matching for some vendors suggests physical matching...not electrical, necessarily. Frequently, I'll specify bogey values, e.g., Gm=2600 umhos, Ia=9.0 mA, for 6SN7's.

 

[Fidach Lad]

No matter how well "balanced" tubes are when they arrive, paralleled output tubes often become "unbalanced" over time and, I am told, the difference is audible.

I have too many tubes - if there is such a thing - right now. In the past, I relied a lot on a small seller of used tubes in the US, whom I trusted a great deal for his collection and his honesty in both testing and replacing defective tubes. He often sent me free tubes that tested "low". They did and they sounded fine. The biggest problems i had were always with current production output tubes, mainly JJ and PSVANE. Fortunately, the inexpensive output tubes made by Shuguang, both triodes and pentodes, are reliable and quite good sounding for my needs.

In the long-run, getting over obsessive-compulsive behavior with regard to tubes has greatly improved my enjoyment of music.

 

[bonzo75]

And this is precisely NAT audio, my favorite amp, instead of matched tubes, has one giant tube http://www.nataudio.com/products/all-products/vacuum-tube-power-amplifiers/item/26-magma.html

 

[es347]

..ironic that the OP starts a toobers thread and his handle is "pnp"