Tube Basics 101: What is a rectifier tube for?

Just went through this situtation myself! Brent jessee helped a great deal! Up graded to siemans 12at7 tubes from rca's- huge improvement! Than upgraded rec.and what it did was increase presence,depth,sound stage and gave a punch to the low end!it has to do with current.so the rec. Is an important part as to providing higher current to the pre. I liken it to the right pre and amp combination. Each sys is going to react diff.its trial and error.try diff. Rec. And see which one you like the best!this (to me )
falls into
More or less tweeking your sys. Assumeing pre,amp,and speakers work well together.brent explaint it better, but it still comes down to "what you like
I went thru 6 diff. Amps,7 pre's and 15 pair of speakers untill I hit on the present combo. And it was worth it!!the tubes power and rec. (Fine tuned) the sys. To exactly what I was looking (or listening for).Brent jessee was a great help, can't recommend him highly enough!

I have question , will a rectifier tube affect the volume ? The left channel of my tube amp sounds a bit louder than the right channel , i was hoping that a rectifier could even out the sound in both channels , i have swap  the 6SN7, as well as the 2A3 tubes , the result is the same , any thoughts ? , i have bought a new and expensive volume potentiometer (100 K)to replace the one it has (50 K ),  will solve this issue ? , many thanks !!!

hi ibuy,
it is hard to determine the exact cause. it could maybe any of the resistor in your preamp that has drifted in value. it would be best to send it back to manufacturer to check out. However, if the imbalance is near the lower volume settings then it is definitely the potentiometer problem, because generally potentiomenter are poor in channel balance at lower volume setting unless you purchase those costly potentiometer.

Hi, Phillip , thanks for your response , my amp its totally new , unhappy with the Capacitors it came with i bought the best brand i could find , "Jensen" i changed three of them , , the amp its beautifully made Point to point and is starting to sound much to my liking , i just changed the RCA  5R4WGB rectifier with another one , can't tell which brand is it as the lettering its almost gone , BUT it made a difference in sound , i think both channels play more balanced , your are right about the potentiometer , it does play unbalanced at lower volume , which indicates that the issue is the potentiometer . fortunately i have one made especially for AN , by Audio Note , thanks again !!!

Just found this thread. It is too long to read all at once, but I have to disagree with Elizabeth. I believe rectifier tubes do make a difference in sound, based on my own experience.