Changing Tubes

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Diffusion

Future Astrophysicist
I have read posts on this forum in which people have taken apart there current mic preamps and replaced the tube with a higher quality tube... can this really be done? If so, could I simply buy a Sovtek 6922 tube (the tube used in an Avalon 737 pre) and replace it with the 12ax7 tube in my MIC200 to get a better sound? Sorry if this is a stupid question, but i have no idea...

EDIT: What tubes are compatible with a MIC200 preamp?
 
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Well, I wasn't familiar with that Sovtek tube, so I checked it out at the Tube Depot: http://www.tubedepot.com/sovtek.html
It LOOKS like a 12AX7. They are both 9 pin twin-triodes.
My gut says yes you can do the swap, but, I suggest you do a little more research before you try.
Don't forget you can get other brands of 12AX7s.... even NOS ones off of Ebay. Some of them get quite pricey!
My experience with tube swapping has been with guitar amps and there IS a noticable difference between some tubes.
 
thanks for the advice... could anyone else explain in a little more detail? I would really like to know which tubes i can use to replace a 12ax7... it just doesnt make sense to me why people would spend thousands of dollars on a pre when they could by a cheap pre and replace the tube with the tube from the expensive pre... this could save you like hundreds of dollars...
 
Putting a new tube into that Behringer is not going to make it sound like an expensive pre. It *might* make it sound a little better, but it won't give you a new preamp.

The thing is, like many low cost preamps, that Behringer uses a low voltage. Meaning that very little juice is run through the tube, which in turn means that the tube is less important to the overall sound than a high voltage preamp.

You may get some improvement with a more expensive tube, but it most likely won't be earth shattering.

The lowest priced tube preamp I know of that uses high voltage through the tube is the EH 12AY7 Mic Preamp. You can get those for around $185. By the time you've bought a few tubes to try and improve your MIC200, you could have bought the EH unit.

And finally, as guido #2 said, the tube is only part of the sound, especially on a low voltage tube unit like the MIC200. There's a lot of analog circuitry that has more to do with the sound than the tube, and you can't do anything about that.
 
yea the EH 12ay7 is actually the pre im trying to get now... i guess i was just curious as to what kind of sound i could get by switching tubes in a cheap pre... so what about when i my EH 12ay7? Could i switch tubes in the EH to upgrade my pre rather than buying a new pre all together? or would the sound difference still be too subtle?
 
With a high voltage design the difference between tubes should be more noticable. It still may be subtle though, it's not always a huge difference.

I'd say get the EH, use it for a while as is, and then start buying tubes and switching them out. It can kind of turn into an addiction, buying tubes, so be careful!
 
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