PC for 2 channel enthusiasts... (tubes)

madmax

A friend built me an awesome PC for some home use. Everything about it works better than I ever envisioned. So here I am looking at it thinking how can I personallize it to me. Here is the idea...

I have 2 open bays. Why not create a 2 channel tube preamp/amplifier, made to fit the two bays and output to my new polk R-15's?? Sure, I have the Teak amp I was planning to use but it seems non-tubifile to just use the standard outputs into a digital amp. Maybe just a tube pre-amp would be fine. Any ideas??? If someone were to design something of this nature what would you want it to do??

madmax


Edit: Oh yea, it would have to look very cool and perform well. I'm headed in the direction of a pre-amp only but this is all still open.

Lets see, obviously heat disapation is an issue and yes, I would have to obtain the musical content from either the analog out of the sound card or a USB connection. I'm thinking a self contained unit which has a pair of outputs which come from the back where cards normally have a space. Maybe you just have a jumper connection that goes from audio out back into the preamp then out again to an external amp. I'm still totally up in the air. Any suggestions?

madmax

Good points Zero! I'm still looking towards something I could integrate into the PC housing. Not because it is best but just because... I could go from a coax through my AudioNote dack directly through my main system and be very happy, just looking for an alternative integrated design.
madmax

Airplay355

don't they make a car stereo receiver or something with tubes in it? what if you stuck that in your comp?

or maybe you could talk to the guy that does the dodd audio preamps and get him to do a custom job for you. maybe you could figure out a way to shield it from whatever might cause interference. there are also computer cases that have fan openings on the side, use that to keep it cool.

madmax

Originally posted by Zero
I am not trying to sound discouraging, I just havent read about it being pulled off with great success. I like the idea, just the same.

Thanks Zero! There is no better support you could ever give an engineer than to say others have not had success.

I heed your warnings! So lets say it could be done, what would you want it to do? This is something you could buy in a box and install with no problems and obtain great audio results. You know, pretend world.

Airplay, I have actually looked into car audio amps with tubes. Other than expense they are very tempting!

madmax

Shizelbs

All I can see is a ton of jitter and microphonics.

Why not just buy the mobo that uses tubes for the analog stage of the onboard audio?