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Why can't you tuberoll with certain amps?

post #1 of 6
8/7/10 at 1:48pm
Thread Starter 

What is it about the design of certain amps that prevents tuberolling? Is the warning not to tuberoll just a legal precaution stated by the manufacturer to preclude potential lawsuits, or does the very nature of the design intrinsically prevent tuberolling, i.e. tubes other than the ones included will literally not work?

 

As I have stated in various threads recently, I am in the market for a new tube amp to pair off with my HD650s, and I was particularly interested in the Schiit Valhalla. However, the more I think about it, the more it bothers me that you can't tuberoll on  it. The price, the looks, and other things seemed really great, except for that one attribute.

 

My other interest is the Woo Audio WA3. From what I've read, I can definitely tuberoll with that and the build quality seems to be a lot better. From the pictures, the chassis appears to be very sturdy and well put together, and I like that they don't use a circuit board. Of course, all of this unfortunately comes with a much higher price tag.

 

So yeah, sorry for rambling on, but I'm on the verge of placing an order for an amp since listening to HD650s driven by the uDAC pretty much sucks. What do you guys think?

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post #2 of 6
8/7/10 at 2:46pm
Each tube has particular electrical properties. If you substitute a tube with the wrong properties it'll change the circuit, possibly damaging your amp or headphones. Sort of like trying to run diesel in a gasoline engine. Some tubes have closely related tubes that can, generally, be substituted. And a lot of times, tuberolling involves running different brands of the same tube.

I'm not much of a fan of tuberolling. As long as a tube works, I leave it in until it fails. Tubes change over their lifetimes and I don't think it's worth buying all sorts of sometimes very expensive tubes to listen for little sonic differences in something that's going to change anyway. Yes, it makes some people happy, but I'd rather find "good enough" tubes then spend my time enjoying music rather than analyzing how something sounds.

I don't rhink you should base your decision on tuberolling. Instead, make sure that any amp you buy has a good supply of fairly priced NOS tubes and/or is being remanufactured. There are a few very good amps that use nearly unobtainable old tubes or are being remanufactured by one company that charges hundreds. If that company goes under, you might be stuck with a very expensive amp that you can't use. Do your homework on tube supply before you spend your money.
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post #3 of 6
8/7/10 at 10:00pm
Thread Starter 

What you says makes sense. However, wouldn't that mean that amps that cannot be tuberolled should be avoided since if the ONLY company who sells those specific tubes goes under, you're pretty much screwed? Whereas with amps that can be tuberolled, if one company goes under, you can get the similar tubes by other brands? This makes me even more concerned about buying the Valhalla in regards to tubes.

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post #4 of 6
8/8/10 at 6:59pm

I wouldn't worry about that too much. Even the amps that come with Chinese tubes often have Russian analogues and those are plentiful and cheap on eBay. For the other situations you have a pretty good selection of old stock tubes on eBay and if you don't want to pay the money for,say,a matched pair of XF2 Mullard EL34's then you can certainly go new production and with the case of the EL34 there are so many guitar amplifiers that use that tube that you needn't worry about the market disappearing.

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post #5 of 6
8/8/10 at 8:06pm
Don't worry about it too much. There are deep stocks of the most common tubes. Also, anything that used tubes used in guitar amps will always have remanufactured tubes available. Also, if the tubes are reasonable, go pick up a few spares. Most tubes will last for a few years, even with daily use, so it's easy to stockpile. I think I can keep my amps going for the next 30-40 years without buying anything else.
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post #6 of 6
8/11/10 at 12:58am

good advice,,  you can easily spend more than your equipments even worth on tubes!!

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