Favorite Preamp tube?

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BobbyBalow

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Thinking about buying one of those studio projects VTB1 preamps and I wanna swap the stock tube with something... Looking for suggestions. It's a 12ax7 tube...
 
Would it really make that much of a difference if I bought that tube and swapped it in my VTB-1?
 
I may be completely off-base here, so someone correct me if I'm wrong (I'm sure you will anyway ;)).

I heard the VTB-1 uses a "starved-plate" design and isn't really a good tube pre to begin with.

If that's the case I would assume changing the tubes would not make a significant difference. That's just what I remember reading on here though.

Fire away.
 
I was reading the reviews from musicians friend and lots of people suggested changing the stock tubes. One changed to a mullard, another GT. They all said that was the way to go... Has anyone on here had any luck with changing the preamp tubes on a "cheaper" preamp?
 
BobbyBalow said:
I was reading the reviews from musicians friend and lots of people suggested changing the stock tubes. One changed to a mullard, another GT. They all said that was the way to go... Has anyone on here had any luck with changing the preamp tubes on a "cheaper" preamp?
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Changing a tube on a starved plate design will not do much, despite what you might hear from folks. It's simply because of the design, and no amount to hype or rumor will change the laws of physics.

I have a real tube preamp (300v rails) and real tube microphones (250v rails). Changing the tubes in them can make a difference, not always "better" - but usually different flavors of good.
 
sdelsolray said:
Changing a tube on a starved plate design will not do much, despite what you might hear from folks. It's simply because of the design, and no amount to hype or rumor will change the laws of physics.

I have a real tube preamp (300v rails) and real tube microphones (250v rails). Changing the tubes in them can make a difference, not always "better" - but usually different flavors of good.
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I'll second that - changing the tube in something like the VTB-1 is a waste of time (for the reason pointed out by sdelsolray). The VTB-1 is a right pain in the arse to open up and get inside, too - a lot of screws and all jack socket nuts have to come off, XLR socket screws, knobs (tight!) everything.
 
I bet the real tube preamp and the real tube microphone cost a lot of real money... :)
 
sdelsolray said:
Changing a tube on a starved plate design will not do much, despite what you might hear from folks. It's simply because of the design, and no amount to hype or rumor will change the laws of physics.
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I'm with you on that but then I'm not. I've had a decent tube in a crappy Art Tube MP and the good tube could be heard with a mic, a direct bass, or guitar. It did add a real cool quality to the sound but overall it was still a crappy Art MP, with some added dimension and smokiness. I've got one here now that sounds staler than day old bread and I know why. It has a shitty tube. A good tube isn't going to magically transform it to a real tube preamp but it will make an improvement. I have a VTB1 and when I turn up the 'tube blend' (ha!) it sounds like complete ass. For all I know it would benefit from a good tube too. I just don't know and I wouldn't make a blanket statement about all starved plate tube preamps. Has anyone here actually put a good nos tube in a VTB1?

The only problem I see with trying this is that a worth while tube or two these days will cost more than the starved plate preamp.
 
I have 3 VTB-1's, being that they are not only starved plate, they are also hybrid starved plate, so you can dial in the tube at full bore witch most would agree doesn't sound good on much, or just a little witch can make the vocals sound slightly "fatter", some may say just "fuzzier" or even "fizzier". I say go for it if really have the need to try it out, but since most people only add in a little to NO tube at all, meh, just might not be worth it at all. Stock it does sound fine IMHO.
 
you gotta spend some real money to get a good pre that is not starved plate....making clean sound at high voltages is not cheap.
 
BobbyBalow said:
I bet the real tube preamp and the real tube microphone cost a lot of real money... :)
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There's a big range. Tube preamps run from about $400 to $1,800 per channel, depending on brand, features, etc. Tube mics run from $250 or so to over $5,000. I'm not including vintage gear in these ranges.
 
reportedly the bellari tube pres, are not starved plate (even the cheap ones) according to some stuff that i've read on the black lion audio site (since removed as they no longer offer those mods).

other deals would include the groove tubes brick, which gets mixed reviews, but is not starved plate and has a transformer balanced output, and can be had for less that $300 used these days (gc was apparently blowing them out for around $200 not too long ago), the blue robbie, which never caught on, but gets good reviews, the peavey vmp-2-- a two channel tube pre, the ua solo/610 (sometimes can be found around $400-500 used), the summit audio tube pres, and others.

i have a ua m610, which i love. it's not really a "high end" tube pre (they can get out of control), but it is very colored which i wanted. i just picked up a coupe of sweet tubes (NOS Valvo 12ax7 and a NOS GE 5 Star 6072a tube) to swap into it, which can reportedly really improve the sound.


Re: Original Post - If you're looking for a good, cheap 12ax7 tube to swap (which many people will say helps even in a starved tube design (a lot of things like tube guitar overdrive pedals are also starved tube and reportedly helped by tube swaps), you might consider Ei tubes or JJ's-- probably between $15-$30 depending where you order from.
 
any NOS telefunken, or an RCA :)

anything you purchase now is either chinese or russian AFAIK
 
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