Antique Sound Lab Hurricane Problem


I just picked up a used pair of these and was as happy as a clam, because these sound really fabulous.

Until the amp blew a tube (V3) and that socket is now dead. Has anyone experienced this very upsetting behavior from this amp ? Is this a common problem and does it have an easy fix ? Or is the amp just really temperamental and needs lots of tips to the factory ?

The filament lights up, but there is no blue halo and the tube doesn't get hot. Meter reads "1" for that socket irrespective of what tube I use there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I love these amps but can't afford to own an amp that is not reliable.
dimitry
"Criticism is often confused with the truth don't you think?"

Oh yes, and sometimes it's the same, and sometimes it's opposite.
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It sounds like an old argument over here that I had inadvertantly re-started. Sorry.

==I certainly wouldn't judge any amplifier based on the sonics of Magnepan 1.6.==

That makes sense, as you probably don't own these speakers. I do and that's the only speaker sound that matters to me when evaluating amplifiers. In my small experience, these panels have been rather easy to live with, and reveal upstream differences readily.

===They break by themselves; changing tubes only prolongs the inevitable===

That's what I am trying to ascertain - the frequency of the breakdowns in these amps. Your experience with them has been negative then ? How often was your pair out of commission ?

So far, after fixing the two burnt resistors and carefully adjusting the bias (on the low side - 450 mv) on a matched set of 4 quads of KT88EHs, so far they have been stable. But they do run hot and perhaps my fun is all in the future...