Tube Lab

Summer Sale: Fri June 14 - 23/24 Sale Code: summer2024
Link to our online store: valvesnmore.com/
Link to Mellow Tone Kits: valvesnmore.com/?page_id=13253
Link to Mellow Tone Kits KZbin Channel: • Stepped Attenuator Pro...

[@TheElverma]

Battery-powered VW Buzz camper. I concur!

[@mfr58]

You guys really do create natural sounding gear....very pleasing.....

[@cobar5342]

Great video Jim and Charles. I look forward to seeing your new pre-amp and look forward to the Aussie Dollar gaining against the USD!

[@cdbeen123]

sounds great

[@jonathanthomas4722]

Exciting!

[@NosEL34]

Very cool...looking forward to purchasing and building another one of your preamps. Any idea of when you think they may be available for production/to the public?

[@tubelab194]

Because they're much simpler, development time is greatly reduced and the circuit is already finalized (2 weeks start to finish). PCB's are currently being designed and will be ordered next week and take about 10 days to get here, by then the parts we're missing should also be in. So maybe ready for test builders in 6-8 weeks.

[@mikelebron3807]

Curious if the inout impedance is a good match for a dac and output impedance for a modern avr that is around 42k ohms ? Want to add some color to my SS system

[@tubelab194]

We haven't fully bench tested and spec'd the new pre yet, but almost certainly it would be a good match. Input impedance will be 100k ohm and every modern dac I've ever looked at will have very low output impedance (I've seen as low as 32ohm!), so the input side should be no (zero) problem. And your AVR has a reasonable input impedance of 42K ohm and the new pre will have an output impedance of less than 1k so again a good match. The output impedance is the one spec that needs proper bench testing. One of our goals for our new affordable Kit Preamp, was to give people a good pre to use as a buffer and given the sonics, I think this will make an amazing main system Preamp or Buffer.

[@mikelebron3807]

​@@tubelab194 How does this sonically sound vs your current Universal 6or12SN7 Dual Mono PreAmp? Any comparison you can offer - even subjectively between the 3 pre-amps putting cost aside?

[@59seank]

Does the finished preamp have top mounted inputs and outputs? That seems like strange choice.

[@tubelab194]

@@59seank All of our Kits have the RCA In/Out located on the top plate and it works really well. Remember when you bring a low signal into the rear of a preamp/amp chassis it is now located right beside the noisy power supply. Much better to drop it in to the point of the circuit where it is quiet and the wire run is very short. In order to design superior sounding Kits it's important to forget what commercial manufacturers do, and start from first principles.

[@rickg8015]

Can the CF output tube be rolled too with other variants?

[@tubelab194]

No and yes, the 6N6P is a unique Soviet tube, with only a couple of factories making them. However the tube is one of the best twin triodes ever made, so you really would never have a reason to roll it out. Which means tube rolling is concentrated on just one voltage gain tube. You could own 4 or more affordable tubes and dial in your sound depending on what you're looking for.