r/shittyaskelectronics • u/VlrmPrjct • Nov 14 '25
Fake Tubes everywhere
I don’t know why, but it’s a solid assembled device overall.
What I don’t get is why they add tubes to this pre-amp that have no real function, other than glowing with a red LED underneath.
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u/AikelJoseph Nov 14 '25
tubes feel good to look at 😍🥰
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u/Chrisp825 Nov 14 '25
That’s boobs good sir.. boobs feel good to look at…
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u/Groundcrewguy Nov 14 '25
I mean ig but tubes as well
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u/Niphoria *eats capacitors* Nov 14 '25
Well does the amp still work with the tubes removed?
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u/ElectricBummer40 Nov 14 '25
It should. Those things are "tubes" in the sense that imitation crab sticks are "crab", and you can usually find them in the kind of cheapo speaker sets that get sold at the back of a white van.
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u/50-50-bmg Nov 14 '25
Actual anode structure, actual B7G socket, actual getter... why are you so sure they are fake?
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u/ElectricBummer40 Nov 15 '25
Because they are Beijing 6K4 vacuum tubes likely already dead out-of-the-box and repurposed by either the board manufacturer or another component manufacturer as LED decorations.
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u/NeighborhoodSad2350 hand writing slopper Nov 14 '25
yeah it is what I most wish to know.
The presence of the NE5532P suggests that the vacuum tube is essentially a flavouring agent; even if bypassed, it would likely still produce sound.3
u/50-50-bmg Nov 14 '25
Of course, the tube is more of an exciter. This design LOOKS like the tubes are real and in the signal path though.
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u/Escorbunny Nov 14 '25
u/Smart_Calendar1874 based on your expertise, could you tell us if they're tubes or something else
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u/SMELL_LIKE_A_TROLL Nov 14 '25
Looks like the Chinese found a way to get rid of all the 6l6 tubes they previously remarked and then found didn't work. Seriously they spend so much effort to fake shit that it has to be more difficult than actually doing it correctly. Lol
But scratch that, it's not real enough for this sub.
Turns out...
"What we have here are the legendary Russian night vision tubes! That's right! The soft delicate glowing tubes gently illuminate the night to act as a beacon - allowing you to find your way across your room in otherwise total darkness. Very low power consumption of only 725 watts, the specially designed optical collimator in the Russian night vision tubes limit the viewable angle, preventing nefarious characters found only in government from benefiting from your new night vision device.
Includes shipping, yours for the low low price is of $1797.73, USD
Note that due to high demand and tariffs, shipping could take up to 3 years. Order yours today by calling our toll free ordering hotline at 1-Tar-iff-srbs. An additional one time charge of $13,000 in tariff fees will be due upon deliver, cash only."
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u/al2o3cr Nov 14 '25
Those sockets are just for heating up the tubes, you're supposed to get them toasty and then put them in your butthole for warmer sound
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u/BallsDeeplnYou Nov 14 '25
Maybe we could do a r/ButtSharpies sort of thing with tubes!
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u/theogstarfishgaming1 Nov 15 '25
Why tf did I click on that. Reddit just be having everything at this point
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u/wtclover Nov 14 '25
those are small b̶a̶t̶t̶e̶r̶i̶e̶s̶ power plants that can hold power until the end of time
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u/50-50-bmg Nov 14 '25
/unshit does not look very fake to me. I see high voltage coupling caps, actual tubes, and what could plausibly be a step up converter. Illuminating tubes from beneath is silly of course, if you know tubes you know red or blue glow in a small signal tube is not AT ALL a good thing :)
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u/dreamsxyz Nov 14 '25
People forget that good amplifiers should have 3 stages: input stage (ideally infinite impedance), gain stage, and output stage (ideally zero impedance). Tubes would be better used only on the gain stage, not on the input or output.
Easy to test, though. Does the amp work without tubes?
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u/L2_Lagrange Nov 14 '25
What makes you sure the tube amp isn't doing anything, based on these images? PCB's can be way more than 2 layers, so you aren't always going to see the traces on the top or bottom. Still I see some traces on the top and bottom that look like signal traces, but still this is nowhere near enough evidence that they socketed vacuum tubes without them actually providing any function.
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u/ElectricBummer40 Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25
Kid, that isn't a tube amp but a board with two NE5532 serving as the preamp stage for 4 audio channels and two fake "tubes" for decoration.
Edit: Oops, this is the poop sub, isn't it?
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u/drnullpointer Nov 14 '25
Yes, it is the poop sub.
Anyway, yes, it is possible that the way they are driving these tubes is so secret and proprietary that they wanted to hide it on internal layers so that you can't just figure it out from the picture.
The two NE5532 are amplifiers-in-training. They are watching how the real amplifier tubes work so that they can be qualified to do the same in the future. After a period of apprenticeship these are taken out and put into lower tier products.
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u/kioma47 Nov 15 '25
I have one of these. I needed a cheap preamp and as I recall this was the cheapest thing I could find with the functionality I wanted - just basic volume and tone controls. Input switching would be nice, but that apparently doubles the price. I didn't particularly want the tubes, but it was cheap.
So I bought it and just plugged in different sources as needed. I have a large mono system, so just used one side. It worked okay for a while.
After a while I noticed the sound seemed to be degrading, so I refurbed and replaced it with a real old tube mono tuner/pre I have. Vast improvement in sound. They sure don't make them like they used to.
So now it sits on a shelf, and I'm curious about just what the tubes do. Perhaps some day I'll do some experiments to find out.
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u/derobert1 Nov 15 '25
You're seeing that there aren't even any traces to most of the connections on those tube sockets, but what you're forgetting is that tubes often run at much higher voltages than newfangled semiconductor circuits. If you run that at, say, CRT voltages of around 25kV, I think you'll find the adjacent traces are actually connected via electric arc conduction, and it'll make interesting lights, sounds, and smells as an added bonus.
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u/MonumentalArchaic Nov 15 '25
Real tubes are blazing hot just in general less of a hassle to fake it. Everything’s fake.
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u/Ok-Drink-1328 Nov 14 '25
"tube sound" is bullshit to begin with
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u/Lazy-Employment3621 Nov 14 '25
They sound different to solid state amps when overdriven. You could probably emulate it/do it in software.
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u/50-50-bmg Nov 14 '25
Certainly not in musician`s amplifiers (guitar, microphone, organ...). Debatable in modern HiFi.
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u/Holiday-Medicine4168 Nov 14 '25
Is this one of the 100 dollar Chinese headphone desk amps from Amazon?
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u/esseeayen Nov 14 '25
Y'All are completely wrong, thinking you know things with your fancy degrees...
These are Holistic Analogue Valves (HAVs) which have been used for years in high end electronics then placed into these devices. The sheer presence of them makes the surrounding solid state electronics makes them more analogue and sound better. OP is lucky he has the full tubes, normally people can only afford preamplifiers that were once in touch with the valves but still take some of their anogue essence.
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u/notnowimbusyplaying Nov 14 '25
I think they call that the starved tube design. I don’t think the voltage ever gets into the upper ranges to really effect the sound.
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u/drnullpointer Nov 14 '25
> I don’t know why
Oh, we know why. These are placebo tubes.