• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

Best line stage tube?

What is the best line stage tube?

  • ECC81

    Votes: 5 9.6%

  • ECC82

    Votes: 9 17.3%

  • ECC83

    Votes: 6 11.5%

  • ECC88

    Votes: 30 57.7%

  • ECF80

    Votes: 1 1.9%

  • ECL82

    Votes: 1 1.9%
  • Total voters
    52
  • Poll closed .
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#53
Hi,
I was hoping for everyone to give some Ideas regards
best tube, circuit type, and component types. I understand that different types of component will give different results in different areas of the circuit.
It would be interesting to see what choices different people make! And why they make them! From my experience you can spend months trying to get the mix correct then spend more time wondering if it would have been better if you had done it differently..LOL

Regards
M. Gregg
 
Last edited:
#54
M Gregg said:
Hi,
I was hoping for everyone to give some Ideas regards
best tube, circuit type, and component types.
Click to expand...

For what? If you want to come up with "the best" or a set of "bests," you need to specify a target. Impedance and level of sources, impedance and sensitivity of loads, desired bandwidth, required output voltage, required headroom, balanced or single-ended, distortion, marketing/religious considerations, are you designing for ear or for eye...

It's like asking "what's the best material for a gear?" Start by specifying what the gear has to do.
 
#55
I know its "hated", but good or not, 2A3/45 looks nice in a preamp too😀
 

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#56
M Gregg said:
Hi,
I was hoping for everyone to give some Ideas regards
best tube, circuit type, and component types. I understand that different types of component will give different results in different areas of the circuit.
It would be interesting to see what choices different people make! And why they make them! From my experience you can spend months trying to get the mix correct then spend more time wondering if it would have been better if you had done it differently..LOL

Regards
M. Gregg
Click to expand...

You already received the best possible answer from Allen Wright on post #10. Allen designs commercial amplifiers which are highly acclaimed for their sound quality. Allen didn't spend months, he spent 40 years to arrive to what is possibly one of the best line amplifiers ever.

Now, if you are after experimenting on your own in order to learn what affects the sound quality and how it may affect it, that's a different story. Than you can start with any schematic and any tubes you may choose. Build it, than build another one, of different schematic and different tubes – and compare the results. Only, expect a very long learning curve.
 
#58
Nice post Joshua.

Gregg, cut out all posts that stray off topic and you have enough suggestions to work on. Basically there is no ideal set of components or circuits to get a 'best preamp'. There are several good preamps and it's possible that you will like one better than another and different from another persons choice.
Allan has spent a very long time designing and trying out components and circuitry. So has John ( Aikido). So build one of those and you can't be far away from what you want.
Time to start looking at circuitry and required components and make a decision on what you will build first ! If you are a true DIY guy , you will not stop there but this would be a very good place to start. Have fun. Let us know how it turns out for you.
Cheers.
 
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