Hi guys! I'm a little embarrassed that my first post in here concerns such garbage, but...I'm wondering if anyone knows the benefits (if any) of swapping out stock tubes on cheap preamps (and I mean cheap...like Art). If I understand correctly, cheap pres run very little power through their tubes, use them mostly for "character" (noisy distortion) and therefor tube quality might not make any kind of difference (as in lower noise). And I'll fess up right now, I'm not asking for a friend...I bought cheap pres to power some mics. Any help would be greatly appreciated, and thanks as always for a great forum.

Ive got a DBX single channel pre that came with a no-name china 12ax7 that I swapped out for a groove tubes 12ax7, you could even try a 12au7, i believe. EHX is another great tube company right now because they own all the major factories in Russia. Ive visited their hq in NY and they test everything and have a cool bunch of engineers. They also make a really sweet optical compressor called the NY2a which I recommend-they use their own military grade tubes. You can also get NOS tubes around, but im no expert on any of this. Im sure someone could help you more. Good luck

Thanks for the input!

I have a Presonis Tube Pre - the one chanel type - I replaced the stock tube with the EI Telefunkun knock off. This tube is used in high end stereos. It is not recomended for guitar amplifyers because it does not deal with vibration well and can go microphonic so in a preamp it is fine. I noticed a substancial difference, some people might not like it in as much as the "tube" effect is more subtle - by that I mean the ranchy distortion is less but the harmonic inhancement before distortion range is wider so you get less grit but higher quality grit over a wider range and no hiss. This is a good option if you don't want a real overdrive sound - some people want them to sound more ratty and swap tubes in that direction as well. I shoved a coulple of other spare tubes in it at the time I replaced it and there seemed to be a difference at what point you go through the warmth into distortion on the gain knob (you have two knobs of the tube pre one solid state and one that adds the tube effect) with each one. The short end to my ears I like the new tube a lot more than the old one I do miss the ranchyness sometimes though but I could always just swap the tube back and the new tube is only arround $15 - $20

The cheap tube pre amps are built due to cost conserns formost and use the bestr op amps and tubes that bring in the product within a competitive price point I also think that some tubes are used because they are more rugged as opposed to sounding best, so that the product will work if manhandled in shipment to the stores.