12AX7A preamp tubes - ribbed vs smooth plate

preamp tubes for an amplifier

?

@immatthewj amps use a variety of small signal tubes in their inputs it's also possible the OP is referring to an integrated amp.

If this is the same amp(s?) that OP was referring to a while back ago with (I think I remember him saying) 16 output tubes, I wouldn't think it would be an integrated.

It's a mono block amplifier with 8 KT 88 and 6 small tubes (  4 rectifier, 2 preamp).

I assume the "2 preamp" tubes are the amps input tubes or driver tubes?

. . . ohhh, so they are MC9011s? I just did a cursory read on them--interesting amps.  Anyway, Mac is calling the two 12AX7s the signal tubes for the amp.  Which is not what I would call a "preamp tube"  (I would call a preamp tube a tube in the preamp) but I guess it doesn't matter what you call it.

I wonder what the 12AT7s are for?  Inputs or drivers into the ss section?

I thought preempt tubes were a way to describe use of this tube within an amplifier (ie taking the week analogue level signal from the pre-amplifier and turning it into a stronger line Signal) and is this also considered to be a signal tube?

I’ve never made any claim whatsoever to be an audio/electrica/tube guru, so maybe I’ve been wrong all these years, but I always thought of the tubes in a preamp (or the preamp section of an integrated) as being the "preamp tubes", and then all of the tubes in an amplifier, including the smaller input or driver tubes, as amplifier tubes. For example: In my amp, I have always considered the pair of 6922s and pair of EL84s that are in front of the dozen EL34 output tubes as all being amplifier tubes. And I have then also considered the six 6SN7s in my preamp as the "preamp tubes." But like I said, maybe I have been wrong about that.

As far as "signal tubes", technically, I guess they would be any tube in the signal path? Although I guess that when someone says "signal tube" maybe we usually think of the smaller tubes in the front of an amp or the tubes in a preamp?

I don’t know for sure, and here’s to hoping someone will educate me, and as I typed previously--I guess it doesn’t really matter what you call them (although it may be confusing if we all call them by different nomenclatures).