tube driving the same tube - whats the collective word?

[zobsky]

i see various opinions out there, but was looking for opinions from people who have actually tried this (sakuma advocates it, others suggest it may colour the sound unacceptably).
welcome all opinions but the question is specifically regarding 46 driving 46 RC coupled in single ended mode with some other gain stage in front to provide additional swing.

i should add that a potential concern i have (in case of a DHT driver) is hum, ... wondering if a IDHT might not be better in this position.

this is as opposed to the 46 datasheet which talks about 46 SE transformer coupled to 2 x 46 PP

thanks

 

[Sheldon]

Actually you can make a very low distortion (uncolored) amp by using two of the same tubes in a distortion canceling topology:
http://www.tubecad.com/articles_2001/Inv_Dist_Cancellation/index.html

Sheldon

 

[rdf]

Ivan Johnston examines this topology in Sound Practices Issue 17 (pdf download online somewhere) with computer simulations and believes it trades lower low-order distortion for increased high order and IMD. His conclusions recommended against it (for his tastes) and left it at 'your mileage may vary'.

 

[zobsky]

yikes, . another can of worms ..

thanks for the link, .. i need to read it up