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Why is it called "Tube Rolling"?

MaxSeven

MaxSeven

Word Skeptic
Anyone else detect a bit of geeky snickering behind this jargon? I could understand "tube swapping" or a "tube recipe", perhaps even "tube ganging." But "tube rolling?" I'm not really meshing with that vernacular, as it seems trite, camp and over zealous. What's up with the "rolling" bit? Is this because, since tubes are cylindrical, they roll or does it have to do with weed or tabacco (e.g. rolling your own)?

:boring::boring::boring:
 
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Because you roll the old tube in your fingers while listening to the new one. Must be an ADHD thing.
 
Roll! Roll! Roll in ze hay!!!

teri_garr01.jpg
 
I first encountered the term "tube rolling" in the mfgr's comments section of Stereophile in the early 90s (I think). David Manley and Roger Modjeski were going at each other about tube amp design philosophies and Manley used the term in a very pejorative sense to describe indiscriminate tube swapping.
 
This is a nonanswer, but I've been muddled over that question too since I first heard the term. Since it reminded me of log rolling (hopefully minus the plaid shirts), I had to pick this guy I have as an avatar when I found him doing log rolling with a tube.
 
You can roll op-amps, but they tend to just slide across the table, rather than roll off.
 
Feeling lucky?

Goes back to the gambling involved ... swapping tubes and hoping for an improvement is your basic roll of the dice ... sometimes it's a pretty expensive gamble, and you roll craps.
 
Two possibilities:

1. You watch your nickels roll into the drain as you buy a variety of tubes to try;

2. You get rolled by the folks on eBay selling used tubes as NOS
 
sKiZo said:
Goes back to the gambling involved ... swapping tubes and hoping for an improvement is your basic roll of the dice ... sometimes it's a pretty expensive gamble, and you roll craps.
Click to expand...

That makes sense, although it seems a bit of a stretch. One never hears someone say "dice rolling". Why not "cartridge rolling" for turntables? Or, why not "cable rolling" for interconnects or speaker cables? :scratch2:
 
Now that's the most logical explanation I've heard yet.
A gamble in an attempt for better sound.
From my experience better sound comes from a better amp, tube rolling often resulting in inaudible differences.
Recently I tried using a Heathkit UA2 to power a University Dean giant speaker and noticed the sound was thin (as I've noticed with all speakers it is hooked to.) Switching to an Eico hf22 provided much better bass and overall sound.
Let us know if you heard a difference by tube rolling and what that difference is please.
 
So my best guess and how I always thought of it was...

like in the phrase "lets' keep rolling". Just a way to say more than one in the series, or keep going. Not that you're really going in circles... So rolling through tubes would be the same thing... And, you are sort of "rolling" because all of your tubes are being cycled through the same spot, kind of a big circle.

At least that's how I think of it.
 
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