2. amps-preamps
  3. 186645-86

Tube Preamps Should Have This Feature

So it's late or you just want some casual listening for a short time. "Should I fire up my tube pre for 30 minutes?". My answer is "No". Why not let me flip a switch (or push in the volume control) to put my pre into "bypass" mode? Bypass would, effectively, convert your pre into a passive device, keeping the tubes dark.

This sounds useful to me.

128x128dweller

Showing 3 responses by soix

soix
9,841 posts
 

Life is long enough to spectacularly screw it up.

@inna Heh heh. Good one. I’m clearly a work in progress with much downward potential.

soix
9,841 posts
 

I am not opposed to tubes, but would like one that I could just leave on all the time that would not burn through a lot of tubes, and also would not heat my house. Are there tube preamps that you can just leave on all the time and expect to get reasonable tube life?

@zlone Linear Tube Audio preamps are excellent and have loooong tube life due to their David Berning ZOTL design, and the tubes are also cheap to replace.  They’re also excellent headphone amps if you swing that way.  Definitely worth a look and plenty of reviews out there that’ll give you more info.  Hope this helps. 

soix
9,841 posts
 

Agree that life’s too short to stress about such things, especially with regard to a preamp where tubes tend to last pretty long and are relatively cheap to replace.  Music soothes the soul even if it’s just for 30 minutes, so just do it!

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