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Pre-amp vs "normal" tubes

post #1 of 2
11/28/11 at 1:48pm
Thread Starter 

Looking at tube depot. I noticed that some tubes are listed as preamp tubes while others have no such designation (so I assume that they're "normal"). What's the difference and can a preamp tube be used in an amp?

 

Thanks,

Chris

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post #2 of 2
11/28/11 at 6:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlbinoBlacMan View Post

Looking at tube depot. I noticed that some tubes are listed as preamp tubes while others have no such designation (so I assume that they're "normal"). What's the difference and can a preamp tube be used in an amp?

 

Thanks,

Chris


Generally speaking, preamp tubes are tubes that have small-signal, high-gain characteristics.  Power tubes have gain, but usually the output is much higher in watts than "pre-amp" tubes.

 

Almost any tube can be used in an amp - if the amp is designed to use it.  That's a big "if," though.  Tubes come in thousands of different variations.  Very few of them (almost none) can be dropped into an existing amp and work - unless the tube is an accepted equivalent for the tube that was used for the design of the amp.

 

 

P.S. I'd be careful looking at Tube Depot unless you're really interested in guitar amps.  I used to really like them - even wrote a review that you can probably still find in the Amp section of Head-Fi  They've changed greatly over the years, though, to almost exclusively support quitars and guitar amp applications (with high prices!!).
 

 


Edited by tomb - 11/28/11 at 6:16pm
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