My Little EL-84 Amp Has Problems And Needs Fixin'


Greetings fellow audiophiles-
I bought a 18wpc EL-84 integrated amp from a very nice Chinese eBay seller.I went around eBay and offered him $250 shipping included from China.It was a very nice price.
Its called a Aria Minip-1 and was built to 110V.
Its a heavy little guy at 22lbs,point to point wiring,ceramic tube sockets and looks very well made.
My rig was down for cleaning,adjustments and tweaks when the amp arrived.
I put the amp on a table and ran it ~48 hours with the stock tubes.
Dead quite trannies and the tubes were issue free.
I then turned it off for ~30 seconds then installed some NOS tubes I bought for this amp that was suggest to me from a friend who once owned this same amp and NOS tubes.He never had a issue.
The stock input tubes for this amp are 2 6N3's
My NOS input tubes are 2 matched G.E. 5670/2C5i Western Elecric 396A mil.spec.
The NOS EL-84's are a matched quad of General Rohren.
Upon fire up of the amp, the 2 left EL-84's flashed and glowed a white color.The other tubes were a nice steady yellow.
I shut the amp off and waited a few minutes.
I then turned the amp back on with the same results but this time after a couple of
seconds a light colored,small amount of smoke came out from under the left EL-84 socket.
I switched back to the stock tubes and they glowed without a problem.
I then switched the NOS tubes back in and they glowed without a problem.
I then put my rig back together enough so I could test it.
The Right channel is dead,but all tubes glow a pretty yellow :~)
Im not going to bother the eBay seller over this.
The local,excellent tech. is out of town and I'm planning on having him repair this amp.
My question is,whats up with this amp?
Im eager to aquire the most information I can on the failure of this amp before the tech.returns in a week.
Thank you for any infomation anyone can share.
dave


david99

Showing 1 response by david99

Studio1-
Thank you for your detailed answer.
I have to add this though.
The amp is the same amp with the same tubes that my EL-84 amp lover/friend once owned and he never had a problem with this amp or the NOS tubes.
I cant figure out how this could be.

Studio1,maybe you can add some insight on how this coulg be.
Thank you again for your time and your excellent knowledge.
dave