I own a Tubehead. I like it OK for what it
does (great organ distortion for those Deep Purple like tones). However,
it is not the sound I am looking for.
You are right about the (starved plate design being a very low voltage).
However, that is more of an abortion of the signal than the pushing into the
non-linear response area.
The 10 volt MOTM signal level is not a problem in
my opinion (as unprofessional as it is). Buffer and isolate in, buffer and
isolate out. I see no reason that the many tubes (including the fine 12Au7
twin triode) cannot operate with plate voltage around 90 volts.
I'm not trying to twist any arms. I'm just
seeing if anyone has cool ideas they want to share.
Larry H
----- Original Message -----From: John SpethSent: Tuesday, October 31, 2000 10:29 AMSubject: [motm] Re: I've got a tube up my a**I bought a PAIA Tubehead and, after fixing the underdesigned power supply, I got a real nice tube preamp. I'm far from being a tube expert but I know it runs the tube at about 35V by stepping up the 9V delivered from the wall wart. (Isn't this called "starved plate" design?) It's not the best sound but it's compact, relatively cool (low temp) and does wonders for overly clean signals.
I would think that most tube preamps are not MOTM compatible because the 10V MOTM signal levels would be too much for useful operation. I'd love an MOTM VC tube preamp! And maybe 250V in the circuit just isn't necessary.
John Speth
Molectron Detector, Inc.
http://www.molectron.com
mailto:johns@molectron.com