About me
A little about me, Anthony Mathews and how Tube Distinctions came to be.How Tube Distinctions came to be…
My name is Anthony Matthews and I am the sole proprietor of Tube Distinctions; a small but well established company situated in Mid Glamorgan, South Wales, UK. We specialise in repairing,modifying, designing and manufacturing all types of valve/tube audio equipment.
I am first and foremost a music lover; I guess I became an audio engineer out of necessity rather than by choice.
Tube Distinctions have been building audio equipment for over 15 years now, but I personally have been repairing other manufacturers’ equipment, from guitar amplifiers (all types) to audio replay equipment (hi fi) for as long as I care to remember (about 25 years!).
It was in fact out of frustration from my many disappointing experiences of other so called high-end manufacturers’ equipment that led me to start up Tube Distinctions.
My roots are I guess firmly planted in what I would describe as the ‘amplified instrument domain’, e.g., guitars, harmonica’s, organs, etc. and of course not forgetting the human voice.
These instruments and the sounds they produce were the original inspiration that led me to become intensely interested and later involved in all aspects of the audio spectrum.

From my humble beginnings of learning to play the guitar from the age of eleven and thus the start of my understanding of what it takes to create music in the first place, to the birth of the high end audio equipment Tube Distinctions now design and build to reproduce faithfully what has been recorded and captured for all time.

A little bit more about me…
Ever since I can remember, I have always loved music, from my earliest memories as a child, going to sleep most nights to the sound of the radio emanating from my father’s workshop, which happened to be next to the bedroom I shared with my brother.
But, unlike my brother who was usually asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, I was always wide awake way after I should have been for my age. My father, an electronics engineer, loved all types of music and would be in his workshop repairing and building equipment sometimes way into the early hours of the morning. With my mind racing with exciting ideas for the coming day, the music relaxed me and every song that played seemed to capture my imagination and would always succeed in keeping the tiredness at bay until the next one and the next……
I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music..… I get most joy in life out of music.
Albert Einstein (1879~1955)When I became a teenager, I became intensely interested in guitars and after what seemed weeks and months of nagging and sulking, my parents finally gave in and bought me my first electric guitar. It was like Christmas! I spent every spare hour playing it – well, making noises anyway! When I was about 14, I made my first real complete piece of electronics: a guitar affects pedal! This inevitably led to the completion of my first guitar amplifier and so on…
My Current System
My Current System
My current system varies from time to time; however, I am rather pleased with things at the moment so, if you check here regularly, you will see this set up used for the foreseeable future.