Hi, I don’t know if it’s the right place to post this, but :
I am thinking about doing a small tube “clean” preamp just to colour a little the clean guitar sounds before my EMU card input. I’ve (briefly) tried the behringer mic 200 preamp but wasn’t convinced by the sound, plus I don’t need the bad limiter and the rest of it’s features.
I know there are a lot of negative comments about starved plate designs (it’s only marketing, sound like crap, etc…) and that tubes are supposed to work on much higher voltage, but this one seems to sound great and has good reviews too :
http://www.takamine.com/?fa=elec_cooltube
So, anybody had a look in it ?
Thanks for your anwers, comments, experiences…
For info, here is an interesting answer of Mike Markure, the head engineer on the cool tube project, found on the AG forum, :
Thanks for the interest in the Takamine and the CTP-1 Cool Tube preamp. I was alerted to your question here by a friend who frequents this group.
For the sake of accuracy I figured I would respond to some of the comments about the CTP-1.
1, The tube is 100% in the signal chain (audio path) at all times
2, We do only use half the tube in this application
3, The tube is not there to add distortion.
4, There are three signals directed through the tube.
5, By their very nature, tubes accentuate "even order harminics" Thats why I chose a tube.
6, By their very nature tubes do not pass DC. Another reason I chose a tube.
7, The preamp could be built using solid state devices. Tubes just work much better for this application.
8, Advancing the Cool Tube knob does increase the output. This is due to the linear introduction of the two additional signals as the knob is advanced. Not a "gimmic". In fact the CTP-2 will compensate for this volume increase. Though it can of course be compensated currently using the volume slider.
I have heard the term "starved plate" before but I am not certain of the correct meaning. Basically it comes down to what exactly you are asking the tube to do. Obvously we are not treating the tube in a "traditional" way. Technology has changed.