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Rolled a French Thomson NOS power tube into my xduoo TA-26. It sounded very good on stock tubes, for sure just a polished dark voice, but I really love the sound now with my little stumpy tube. Ordered up a cheap socket saver off of Amazon and stumpy is now standing at a towering height fitting of his sound profile.

I’ve always heard to avoid socket savers is this true? I really want to try them as my Mjolnir 2 due to the recessed tubes.

I have not heard that but maybe? I'm probably not going to ever take this one out so I'm sure it's fine.

You dare to put ta26 on top other gear? 😄

Because you can't put other gears on top of TA-26 lmao

It's just a Ferrum Orr. nbd.

Lol true 😂😂

I have a Pomona socket saver for my output tube. The tube had galled pins and I have Teflon tube sockets with collet-style sockets that grip incredibly tight on pins that aren't perfect. It was a struggle to get the output tube on or off, so it was easier to use a saver which has a slightly a looser fit. In my case, it worked out visually because my input tube was already sitting higher on an octal-noval adapter.

https://imgur.com/a/UzVhVFi

Every pixel of that picture is gorgeous. Please, I can only get so hard.

Did the same thing with mine :D it looks weird without one lol.

For me it didn't change a single thing... Why should they be avoided? The only downside I noticed is that it's difficult to get the tube out of the socket again. The sound is the same and I think it keeps the amp cooler too, a win I would say.

How big is the difference? I swapped so many tubes and so far I couldn't really say that something changed. Tung-sol 6SN7, RCA 6SN7, Foton tubes from the 60's, RCA 6SN7 and for power tubes RCS 6080 and Jan Sylvania 6080.. Settled on the Tung-sol and the Sylvania in the end but I can't really say that they're better than the rest.

I'm in general confused by the TA-26 because it's so clean. It sounds almost as clear as my FiiO K5 pro, there are only some sub bass and maybe dynamics that are a little different, but only very slightly.

My solid state amp stack is so clean and discreet that i see a huge difference with the TA-26 even on stock tubes. But for a tube amp i do agree it's not as "toobie" as i was expecting. A NOS tube brought in some gorgeously buttery smooth distortion and i love it. Only downside i think is this tube needs a bit of a warm up. But it is also cool because if you listen to soon you can also hear it come into it's own.

YMMV, but the one i bought: https://www.ebay.com/itm/114410456867?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=QdZlV0lrRhG&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=VfXUHe3UT0S&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Ah well, I own the FiiO K5 pro ESS and it's very similar to the TA-26.. Didn't expect that lol.