Blue Gas in Tubes - Why? Is it Bad?


My friend's Svetlana KT88s glow with blue gas. He says that it doesn't mean anything, but I'm not so sure. He claims that he has seen this in Svet KT88s from different sources, including Upscale Audio.

I have heard that companies like Audio Research screen out tubes for "gas". Is this the same thing?

Does this affect the life or the performance of the tube?
saxo

Showing 1 response by eldartford

Vacuum tubes, in particular cathode ray tubes (TV tubes) have a device called a "getter". It's called that because it is supposed to "get" any gas that leaks through the glass (yes glass leaks slowly). There was a time when a TV set placed in storage for a year, and not turned on so the getter could do its job, would suffer immediate failure when it was turned on. I have not heard of this problem lately (maybe TV sets never get turned off). Perhaps we have better glass or some other improved technology.

Anyway, tube designers went to a lot of trouble to keep gas out of their tubes. It can't be good.