Some tube equipment companies’, "Standby" practices, keep the gear at half voltage and zero B+. That avoids thermal shock, at turn on. Sonic Frontiers doesn’t mention the half voltage thing. Still; keeping the filaments energized, is supposed to better for the tubes(etc), than a cold start. Not to mention: warm up, as regards presentation. You may have a tube, with an internal glitch, which corrects after fully heating. If the noise only occurs in one channel, try swapping the tubes between channels, one pair at a time, to locate the offender. If in both channels; there’s probably another issue. I’ve always given my tube gear a few minutes(each piece) to stabilize, before bringing anything else online.
System start-up noise
Happy Super Bowl Sunday,
I have a question about what may be causing some noise my system is producing just after start-up. Please note that all the components involved are always in stand-by. The components involved are a Sonic Frontiers Line 1 preamp, and Parasound JC1 mono amps. The speakers are Triangle Volante 260.I always bring the preamp out of stand-by first, it has a thirty second mute process while powering up. Then I bring the Parasounds out of stand-by, while the Line 1 is in the mute phase. If I don’t put any music on, I’ll hear a muffled distortion-like noise from one or both channels after about 3-5 minutes of the system sitting idle. The noise isn’t loud, and has an intermittent quality. The first time I noticed it I wasn’t paying attention to the stereo, and at first thought a squirrel had gotten into the eaves and was scurrying about. The noise had that quality of muffled scratchiness. After a few minutes, the noise goes away, and doesn’t return until the next time I bring the system out of stand-by. I’ve never heard the noise while playing music. The Line 1 has has three pairs of 6922 tubes, could these be the cause? I bought the unit used, and I have no idea how old the tubes are.
Thanks in advance for any advice,
Dave
I have a question about what may be causing some noise my system is producing just after start-up. Please note that all the components involved are always in stand-by. The components involved are a Sonic Frontiers Line 1 preamp, and Parasound JC1 mono amps. The speakers are Triangle Volante 260.I always bring the preamp out of stand-by first, it has a thirty second mute process while powering up. Then I bring the Parasounds out of stand-by, while the Line 1 is in the mute phase. If I don’t put any music on, I’ll hear a muffled distortion-like noise from one or both channels after about 3-5 minutes of the system sitting idle. The noise isn’t loud, and has an intermittent quality. The first time I noticed it I wasn’t paying attention to the stereo, and at first thought a squirrel had gotten into the eaves and was scurrying about. The noise had that quality of muffled scratchiness. After a few minutes, the noise goes away, and doesn’t return until the next time I bring the system out of stand-by. I’ve never heard the noise while playing music. The Line 1 has has three pairs of 6922 tubes, could these be the cause? I bought the unit used, and I have no idea how old the tubes are.
Thanks in advance for any advice,
Dave
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- 6 posts total
I agree with the above that it is a noisy tube. You can pull the tubes clean the pins with 4-0 steel wool and try them again. If the preamp is over years old I would consider replacing them. The super low noise 6922 from here
http://www.tubeaudiostore.com/tubes.html are the best you can buy. I use them in my ARC phone preamp (which I leave on all the time) They are at least 10 dB quieter than the tubes ARC used. |
- 6 posts total