Hi all

Just taken delivery of a Little Bear T7 Tube Preamp

One of the questions I had was is it a true tube amp or one of those low end chinese tube amps that are really IC amps and just use the tubes for visual effect.

The price from Douk was low enough for me to take a punt and see whats inside, the seller posted a picture of the populated circuit board that appeared to show that there where no IC's present so it should be a true tube amp, but is it

Pictures below

How it looks in all its splendor



Picture of the top of the PCB showing no IC's



But wait, whats this underneath



The 8 leg IC is a JRC2068 which is some form of OpAmp

http://www.datasheetcafe.com/jrc2068-datasheet-pdf/

So the question for those in the know, is is it a true tube amp or is that OpAmp really doing the amplification.

Thanks for any feedback

Paul