2. amps-preamps
  3. 194431-150037

Can using a bad tube hurt an amplifier?

If you're using a tube for a while, and everything's fine, and then voltage changes over time gradually, and then it damages an amplifier? are amps Built with controls to prevent that from happening?

How can you trust using a tube if it potentially could harm an amplifier?

Assuming You're using the correct tube in the slot provided.

 

emergingsoul
feldmen4
123 posts
 

@kennyc +1

guscreek
69 posts
 

My 1948 Capehart has a main power supply in which the xmfr winding for the rectifier tubes is fused to prevent catastrophe.

wspohn's avatar
wspohn
614 posts
 

Thinking back to the days when every drug store had a tube tester in it, it would have been nice to have foreseen needing one in the future and picking up one as they were pulled from the stores.......

niodari's avatar
niodari
327 posts
 

Yes. My SET amp was  damaged (the capacitor below the tube and then other things, it was not easy to repair it) when an El-34 tube was blown up. In fact, I was in front of the amp watching how the tube was blown up, I powered the amp down but the damage was almost immediate. 

emergingsoul OP
1,265 posts
 

Maybe all this supports getting monos.  So it's at least a 50% problem, although still bad.

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