Do clothes make the man?
This post is directed at all you golden oldies out there who are old enough, or in a rare case, educated well enough to be aware of the question the title asks.
I bought a used set of Quicksilver Horn Mono amps looking for some tube magic for my efficient speakers. I was less than impressed by what I heard. Let's just say the sound was as flat as a day old Doctor Pepper.
I changed the clothes on these little amps by installing a new set of Chinese made Svetlana El34. Omg, I now have a new man in front of me. The sound is what I expected originally, but it was totally suppressed by the unbranded Viva Tubes it came with.
The moral of the story? The tubes make the amp like the clothes make the man. Be aware though that you can't get by with putting lipstick on a pig.
I would feel BLIND without my simple tester. If I didn’t have one, I might buy this one. https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/650330617-beautiful-heathkit-tc-2-tube-tester/ You could spend more money on a ’mutual conductance’ type, but these basic ’emmisions’ testers let you test your tubes when you buy them, every 6 months, and especially when troubles occur, you can find/rule out the tubes from problems. Brent Jesse (just retired) told me: leave them on, no signal needed, for 60 hrs, done. |
I appreciate all the knowledge here and would like some opinions. This amp came with an RCA 7247. What would you recommend as an upgrade, and would it offer me a major improvement in sound as the power tubes did? Is it worth the increased cost for an NOS? At least there are only 2 of these to play with. |
@elliottbnewcombjr What would this type of tester tell me? |
as the tube warms up: the meter shows ..bad .... ? .... good with increments so you can compare the basic strength, i.e. you buy a ’matched quad set’. check them when you receive them, make a note. new tubes are not 100, i.e. they might be 68 or 72 ... when new. then as they age, and you check them every 6 months, you see how they compare. tubes can last thousands of hours which is many years typically, it depends on how hard they are driven by the amp design. some amps, same tubes, are 35 wpc. another amp, same tube, driven harder is 55 wpc. those tubes life will be shorter. there is a separate ’shorts’ test, sometimes shorts occur, you found the problem, toss it/them. that’s all I want to know when I buy new ones, test them, and to rule them out if a problem occurs. the tubes, unmarked, were put in those Viva boxes by someone. You could have at least known their comparative strength, and tested your new ones when you received them, note their strength when new, verify they are very close to each other. others, want ’mutual conductance’ testers, I can’t be bothered. I’ve been listening/testing/replacing tubes since 1973. I had a big Jackson, had it calibrated, my little one, the basics always agreed with it, I gave it to my friend. He brings his tubes here, he doesn’t use it either. Just the basics, like drug store eye glasses. I just ordered new lenses for my existing frame, $680. I’m not compromising on my vision, but I ain’t spending $680. on a tester too big and heavy to easily use. I keep my little Accurate 151 on a small shelf next to my tube equipment. I bought a nicer newer Accurate model 257, I prefer the one my wife surprised me with on my birthday, so I gave it to a friend I met here.
for 10 years between 1973 and 1983, I stood in line at the tube testing machine in the local electronics store, testing every damn tube from the Fisher President II console I inherited. My feet/legs/back hurt just thinking about it. The poor people waiting in line behind me,
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