Short Answer: No.
Some people hear so much about NOS tubes (meaning, new old stock — tubes that were made decades ago) that they wonder if it’s necessary to get into the whole NOS thing when they buy a tube preamp.
The answer for Backert Labs customers is a definite “no”. If you have a Backert Labs preamp, you never even need to think about NOS tubes, because we make sure to provide great-sounding stock tubes with every preamp we sell.
“How can I be sure that your stock tubes sound great?” First, we are still a young company and we cannot afford to send preamps to customers (and reviewers) if they don’t sound absolutely great.
Second, we are fanatics about music and sound quality. It’s the whole reason we are doing this – we want to share the incredible sound that we get in our labs with the world. So it would be impossible for us to accept the idea of people first hearing a Backert Labs with sub-par tubes.
“Do you use the stock tubes when you listen to your preamps at the factory?” Yes, absolutely. We listen to our stock tubes exclusively.
“Do lots of your customers keep the stock tubes in their Backert Labs preamp?” Yes! More than half of our customers never even think about experimenting with different tubes in their Backert Labs preamp. There’s just no reason to, unless you are into the NOS tubes hobby.
If you have any questions about our preamps or tubes in general, please feel free to call, text, or email us. Our contact info is here.
