Phono and line stage


I am new to tube amps, and I know it's a stupid question. If I only listen to CDs, do I need phono stage in preamp? Is there a good education website on tube amps?
pren
Pren, not to bore you with useless information, but the reason a pre-amp has an input designated as "Phono" is because a Turntable requires a differnt type of amplification than other sources.

Record companies began employing a type of equalization called the RIAA curve about forty years ago. What this did was increase the high frequencies recorded onto a record, and lowered the amount of bass found there. Bass signals require deeper grooves and therefore take up more space on an LP.

What the phonostage of a pre-amp does is reequalize the albums to sound like it was meant to sound. If a person were to listen to a record through an input jack other than one labeled as a Phono input, their record would sound terrible. The highend would be very tinny, and there would be no real bass to hear. On the other hand, if you were to listen to your CDP through the Phonostage, it would sound lousy, due to the equalization.

Purists may take exception to this explanation, but it was intended to be overly simplistic. The point is that unless you plan to buy a turntable you will never need a phonostage, and you will not be able to use that input for anything else.

Beware of Clueless, he is an absolute liar and a fraud. He is one of the more knowledgable people on AudiogoN, and anything but clueless!!!
Clueless, Once again your are in danger of dishonoring your hardwon Audiogon username by providing enough help to the rest of us that our snow-filled driveways go unshoveled while we try to read it all. Thanks for helping Pren, and showing why this site is so good - it's the posters (no, not that kind of poster!)