Tube tester

pitdogg2

Anybody close to me have a tube tester? If not I could ship some to be tested. Here's my problem I bought a 5pk of GE JAN 5654w's and it seems that one of them causes a distortion. I have switched some of them out to try and narrow it down to one tube but I'm having a problem doing that. Seems like as soon as I narrow it down it acts fine. So what gives. I have also bought some Russian tubes and am VERY happy with the sound they give. They are all supposed to be matched but they all come with the same numbers. Are they just tossing in a paper that says the same with all? they very well could be the same just curious is all.

Thanks in advance
Ivan.

newbie308

Did you re tension the tube sockets? I had some issues with a preamp, and the problem was due to poor contact between the tubes and the socket. I used a small screwdriver to close the socket contacts followed by a Caig's Deoxit treatment, and the problem went away. The recommendation is to spray the Deoxit onto the pins of an old tube and work it in and out of the socket about 4-5 times. It is also suggested that the new tube's pins get sprayed and wiped prior to installing them.

I doubt that a tube tester will provide any insight to the distortion you are hearing, but I will leave that to the PF tube experts.

thsmith

Agree with all the above points. My mighty might will find shorts, low emissions and gas but not distortion issues.

+1 on cleaning tube pins and adjusting tension in tube sockets. Sounds exactly like that is your problem if having problems isolating the problem.

Similiar issues can exist on RCA plugs.

pitdogg2

No need to re-tension tube sockets they are very tight. I used pure Caig's on the pins of a tube and worked it in and out when I got the Yqain CD2 first thing I did. Pure Caig's comes in the finger nail polish bottle with a brush. I would think if that was a problem it would be on all of my tubes. So far it is just with the JAN GE's 5654w's None of the other tubes Russian OTK 6j1, Tung-Sol or Siemens tubes do this.

pitdogg2

thsmith wrote: »

My mighty might will find shorts, low emissions and gas but not distortion issues.

So if any of these parameters ^^^^ are out of speck would they not induce something? like distortion? Sorry I'm very new to the tube thing. One of the GE's my son pulled out while the CD2 was on he told me it made a loud THUMP so he put it back in. I found out 2weeks later after I was listening to other tubes....KIDS!! " I wanted to see what would happen" he's 17 he knows better but he's 17 AND KNOWS ALL just ask him

Phasewolf

I would think that a issue like your talking about would be caused by how the tube was constructed. A small error can cause a lot of different issue with a tube that a checker will not see.

heiney9

Describe the distortion. Popping and hissing and static usually means the tube is coming to the end of it's life. If the sockets are fine and you've cleaned the PINS and you still get one or all of those 3 then it's a bad tube. It happens, especially to newer tubes, or sometimes if they are jostled in shipping.

H9

michaeljhsda2

I've had nothing but problems with those exact tubes = microphonic. Note that I didn't take the time to figure out which ones out of the 8 were that way. I waited around too long to return them to the seller. :sad: There might be a few in the bunch that aren't microphonic...you can have them for free if you want to go to the bother to figure which ones are good.

michaeljhsda2

All the tubes tested very strong btw.

pitdogg2

heiney9 wrote: »

Describe the distortion. Popping and hissing and static usually means the tube is coming to the end of it's life. If the sockets are fine and you've cleaned the PINS and you still get one or all of those 3 then it's a bad tube. It happens, especially to newer tubes, or sometimes if they are jostled in shipping.

H9

yes the distortion sounds like crackly distortion in the treble-mid range that is in the stereo and dimensional woofer and tweeter section. These tubes I bought from guitar shop seller who sold 5pks for 12.00 new never used. God I disassembled my SDA's looking over the XO top to bottom looking for ..well something but all looked good. It was later when i switched them out then back in that the problem went from right side to left side. So I then thought it was in the tube somewhere..

so to be clear here at first it was in the right stereo mid and tweeter which also meant it was in the dimensional woofer/tweeter on the left side. then went to the left as the tubes where put back in. So when I put them back in I most likely put the one that was on the right back into the left side. This all would of been easier if my son would not of switched them in the boxes i had marked as used and unused burned in unburned in and so on you get the point. I was just thinking that when he pulled one out that day it may have shorted or something else whiched has caused the problem. Ever feel like your playing 3 card monte....with tubes?

michaeljhsda2

There's a thread in the AVS forum regarding these particular tubes and most people are having lots of problems with them. On second thought, I'm just going to toss them in the trash since I don't want to pass on the aggravation of trying to find out which one of these buggers is not microphonic.

pitdogg2

Link?

michaeljhsda2

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1283685/the-new-yaqin-ms-20l-integrated-vacuum-tube-amp-thread