Is a 12au7 a safe replacement for a 12ax7


Recently I tried the very low gain 12au7 tubes in my preamps phono section.
The reccomended tube for my phono section is a 12ax7.
Other then a huge difference in gain which is desirable the only difference is in heat dissipation.
The reccomended 12ax7 's dissipation is 1 watt and the 12au7 is higher at 3 watts.
I'm not technical ,so I ask
What is the downside of using a 3 watt dissipating tube in place of a 1 watt tube
Many thanks for your reply
goldeneraguy

Showing 1 response by goldeneraguy

Thank you to the above posters
in the past,when rolling tubes it's usually different nos brands of the same tube.
I have also tried 5751 tubes to lower the gain.This helped somewhat.
Even tried 12ay7 's.This worked for the gain but I couldn't find a brand that pleased my ears.
I had some 1960 12au7 so I tried them. This not only allowed better use of the volume control but a clarity ,body and space in instruments that I had never experienced in my listening room.
Trying to find information on this tube I noticed the difference of dissipation and that brought about my question.
Again thank you for your responses