Bendix 6106 burn-in behavior


I've read that the Bendix 6106 can be a very good rectifier tube, but that it takes a couple hundred hours to burn in. And that during that time it can misbehave.
I've been burning in an NOS JAN Bendix 6106 for about 50 hours or so. Today I notice a slight hum on my phono channel, and the volume on the left phono channel is way down. However, on other sources, both channels are hum-free and have appropriate volume matching.
Do I have a bum tube? Or is this a normal behavior during 6106 burn-in? Preamp is Supratek Cortese with LCR phono stage. The seller has said he's willing to swap tubes to ensure my satisfaction...
Thanks, in advance, to anyone who has some experience to share.
Markus
markusthenaimnut

Showing 2 responses by rodman99999

Glad you got it resolved. Of course, being the highest-gain, and earliest, circuit of a preamp, a phono stage would be the most(noticeably) affected, by a misbehaving rectifier. How basic! I was hoping; getting old would take longer!
@markusthenaimnut- If the tube is being used in the preamp, any abnormalities will be noticed on all sources. If your preamp has a tubed phono stage, swap that stage’s tubes, to see if they’re causing the problem. If not: reverse the interconnects from the arm/cart, to the phono stage and the imbalance should follow.