03-08-2016, 05:42 PM
deckeda wrote:
I wasn't looking for info but stumbled across a few instances online mentioning the Nobsound MS-10D
It looks a lot like the one Monoprice sells, yes?
Apparently the tubes are only for show; audio never passes through them. It's not a hybrid design. You can remove them, and the amp is cleverly designed to then not work, but it actually lacks such things as transformers or rectifiers. And ya gotta have that for the tubes to do anything useful beyond look pretty.
That's an "urban myth"... somebody at the Hoffman forums who knew what he was doing took one apart and the tubes are definitely used in the preamp stage:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/14...534/page-3
But as far as the Nobsound business, yeah, it looks like Monoprice had their own rebadged production run done on pretty much the same design.