You bet! Infact, the way it happened was when we plugged in the A10, it was using Telefunken 12AX7 tubes on the input side. They were the smooth plates. I was using 12AU7 Telefunken smooth plates on my B52 at the time. So Ray and I played some music on the B52 and really enjoyed it. Then we switched in the A10 and there was a significant difference in sound. The A10 was quite a bit better sounding with more definition, clarity, resolving of subtleties in the music... Frankly I was stunned as was Ray.
I was like...here we go again. I need to figure out HOW to purchase the A10. Ray was stunned at the difference as well. Both units were sounding so very different from each other and there shouldn't be THAT much of a difference (according to Ray). Well, I almost was sold on the A10 and then.....
I took out Rays input tubes, the Telefunken 12AX7 Smooth Plates and put them into my B52 input section. THE SOUND WAS EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE A10!!! I was so happy at that point, I really can't explain it. I was VERY relieved as I didn't want to go through the hassle of selling the amp and it's custom isolation stand and the whole 9 yards. The difference in sound was JUST the input tubes and NOTHING ELSE AT ALL. Sorry, but when I think of that day, I still get so happy about it. I was on the verge of a major change because my ears were telling me what was happening. It isn't the equipment that I am married to, but when something sounds that much better, it just DOES and there is no way around that.
Damn input tubes...come to think of it, I still need to track down a pair of Telefunken 12AX7 smooth plates with the red tips.
....tube rolling can make a very big difference. Couldn't believe my ears that there could be so much difference in sound between a 12AU7 and a 12AX7 from the same family and same tube type!
EDIT: From what I noticed that day, the input tubes made the differences in the sound null between the A10 and B52 preamp sections. I was very content at that point and never thought of rolling 6SN7 output tubes on the A10. However, from my experience with the B52, the output tubes also have a bearing on the sound, just NOT as much as the input tubes. I did tons of tube rolling on the input and output tube sections of the B52. I really wanted to nail the preamp sound performance for my speaker rig.