| It doesn't matter if you've got a tube in there or not. What matters is that you use the highest-quality preamp you can afford. My personal observation is that if you can only afford a very inexpensive preamp, you'll be hard pressed to find a very high quality preamp with a tube in it. Building a good tube preamp costs money (for the tube, transformers, and power supply). Seeing a tube in a cheap preamp that doesn't budget for transformers or a worthwhile power supply is a pretty good indication that sound quality was not the primary design criteria. |