Nord User Forum

[Ledbetter]

Well, an LPB 2ube came today. I've used it for about an hour and it's not knocking my socks off with its tubes warmth. I'll leave it plugged in to see if the tubes break in. I might send it back and get a Prosonus if the sound doesn't improve. This is a branch off of a thread in the Electro forum where preamps were discussed.

[RedLeo]

If I were you I wouldn't bother. At the risk of disagreeing with a lot of people, tube preamps are basically a lot of hype and almost no substance. People who buy them think they sound better because they're boosting the signal level or because they think they "should" be hearing a difference. I have a tube preamp in my Triton Extreme, and if you level match with a bypassed signal, then there is no perceivable difference in sound unless you use the bass boost or drive the level to the point of obvious distortion. Preamp tubes do not by themselves give the sort of "warmth" that is claimed for them, you need output tubes for that job ie a whole valve amp. There are high end preamps that do work, but they are a whole different game design and price-wise.

[Ledbetter]

Yeah. After matching volumes, I noticed an overdriven sound with "Drive" all the way up. Backing off just a little bit, the effect became unnoticeable. Bringing "Drive" back up the tiniest bit did yield a nice tone with the B3 sounds, but not worth dragging the box, the power adaptor and two extra cables around. The grand piano sounds didn't seem any warmer, which is what I was hoping for. Tomorrow, I'll try again with the oscilloscope hooked up and maybe I'll be able to SEE whether there's a noticeable difference. I'll also listen through headphones to take the amps out of the comparison.

[RedLeo]

Would be interesting if you'd be prepared to post the results of your investigations.

[NolaNord504]

Thank you Ledbetter for reporting back on the EH preamp. I guess it's just wishful thinking that this inexpensive box could somehow add an "extra dimension" to the Nord sound. However, I think it will sound better as it "breaks in" over time. How much better? I don't know. As I mentioned on the other thread, I have used a Presonus Bluetube for years with both my Electro and Stage. Basically, for me it was about having the extra gain (clean, quiet, and neutral). It has always seemed to me that the output of my Nord Keyboards (I've owned 4) is somewhat low. Using a preamp allowed me to make up for that and also to drive my amp a bit harder (in a good way). Since the Presonus has both 1/4 and XLR outputs, it also worked great for sending my signal to the PA system. The EH does not have separate XLR outputs (as far as I know). Correct me if I'm wrong here, but what the EH does have is 2 discreet tube preamp channels, unlike the Presonus which is more like a solid state preamp with a single tube for "effect".

[Ledbetter]

Yes. EHX 2ube has two 12AX7 preamp tubes. It might be much better for mono guitar, since you can feed one channel into the other for a distortion sound. I'm returning the pedal, since the effect in stereo does not improve the Nord Electro's tone. I A/B tested it over and over and it just didn't add anything.

[JiminWales]

As Red Leo said, there's more to a tube amp sound than the pre. Add compression from supply voltage droop and nice 2nd & 3rd harmonics from saturated audio transformers topped off by a speaker with poor hf response!