Conrad Johnson CAV 50


Just acquired this beauty from my father in law. I've never owned a tube amp, so not sure if I should sell it, or keep it and pay him. Anyway, a question for you tube heads. One of the EL34 tubes in slot V7 ( a tube which can have it's bias adjusted, which I assume means the power transmitted) has it's red light constantly on. I turned the bias all the way down and it still flickers. However, I noticed that my left speaker sounded blown/distorted. When I turned the bias up, the distortion decreased. The instructions say to turn the bias down/counter clockwise, until the red light goes out. But, if I do this, it sounds bad. So, my question is this. Is it simply a tube I need to replace to fix that problem, and if I change one tube, should I change them all. Next question is I searched for the EL34 tubes and of course there are a large variety of them. Any thoughts. To me the amp sounds little bright with the Celstion SL6's I am using, so any warmer tubes would be nice. Also, if I were to sell this setup, any idea on what I might ask on pricing? Thanks.
Roly
rolyasm

Showing 1 response by solman989

I've tried all 3 of those tubes and prefer the JJ E34L.  I find that it is the most balanced top to bottom - organic mids, not too bright, not too slow, and no lack of bass in my setup.  Plus they are cheap to replace.  There are proponents for each of those tubes, and ultimately you should hear them all to make up your own mind on what best matches your overall system. 

If the total time is 100 hours on the tubes, that is relatively low and I would just keep them.  I actually think tubes sound better once they have around that much time on them vs brand new.  However, replacement may be a good idea if you do not know the history of the tubes.

The line stage tubes Jazz is referring to are the smaller 12AX7 tubes.  If you feel the need to splurge on tubes, make it these ones and/or the phase inverter 6SN7 tubes.  These are small signal tubes and as such will have a greater effect on the overall sound, more so than the output tubes IMO.