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Audio Aero Capitole - 6021W subminiature tube ??

I would appreciate hearing from someone who can explain the performance of these tubes in the Capitole, including the typical life of the tubes, whether they are susceptible to becomming microphonic or noisy, and how to purchase or change them if necessary. I believe I read these are really small (like the diameter of a pencil) and that they are soldered onto the board. If that is true, is it then necessary to send the player back to the distributor or manufacturer if they need replaced, or are these readily available and set up for user installation? How many years is typical for the tubes to perform in the Capitole before replacement is necessary? Thanks.
mitch2

Showing 2 responses by ckoffend

ckoffend
684 posts
 
Having owned (currently still do sort of) a Capitole, I recently sent it to Arizona for new tubes to be installed - a fairly easy process and not too expensive. The company is Sedonix and are the official service center in USA for AA.

Unfortunately my CDP came back via UPS and no longer works - thanks again UPS.

Plan to replace the tubes every 3-5 years. You should be able to have a local service shop do as long as they have very good soldering skills.
ckoffend
684 posts
 
I suspect that the polarity and pin set-up between the two is NOT the issue. Do a search on invert in the preamp/amp section and you will see from some pretty knowledgeable people (amp designers, etc. . .) that such an issue is not going to cause this problem.

I think you can immediately narrow down the problem to one of three causes:

1: the least likely cause is that you balanced cables are defective. Use, borrow or buy (even a cheap one at a local musical instrument store) and try the new one and see if the noise goes away.
2: there is an issue with the power amps' balanced input handling of that signal internally in the amp (this can easily be tested by an RCA to XLR plug, running the RCA from your Capitole to the balanced in of your amp to see if you are still getting the white noise).
3: there is an issue with the balanced outputs of the Capitole (you can determine this by buying or borrowing an adapter so you run the XLR balanced cable out from the Capitole into the single ended inputs on the amp and to see if you still have the white noise). I suspect this is going to be your problem. Why? Because the Capitole CD players are known for failing or breaking down. They are musically great sounding, but they are made in France!
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