Cary SLI-80 with one blown rectifier tube, BUT STILL WORKS just fine. How?


Question for the more tube savvy among us – thanks in advance for your input.


I powered up my Cary SLI-80 integrated tube amp this afternoon, sat down, listened, and everything sounded great. I left the amp on all afternoon, and sat back down for more listing this evening. Still sounds great.

 

BUT, now that it’s dark outside and there’s less ambient lighting, I just happened to notice there’s no orange glow from the left rectifier tube (the SLI-80 has one rectifier per channel). Upon closer examination, the rectifier appears to be blown, or damaged, or something. No glow, and the getter flashing is severally discolored. I don’t have a tube tester so I can’t be 100% sure. But visually it’s pretty obvious the tube is bad.

 

BUT, here’s the thing I need your insight on: The amp (appears to) still work just fine – both channels sound great. Even at higher volumes. Bias is good, and is stable.

 

So, what gives? Can a Cary SLI-80 amp, with one 5U4G rectifier tube per channel, still work as normal if one of the rectifier tubes blows?

 

I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that if the left rectifier were to go bad, the rest of the left channel would go out also – or at least would not produce power – while the right channel would still operate as normal. I assume each rectifier is electrically isolated to only one stereo channel. Is that not correct? Are both rectifiers working as one, and if so, is the one that’s still good doing the work of 2?

 

How worried should I be here? If it sounds great and seems to work as normal, is it OK to continue to listen to it and wait for the next time I power it down to switch out the rectifiers? Or should I power down right away?

 

Thanks!

Enter your text ...
mhwalker

Showing 3 responses by atmasphere

@noromance You'll be alright with the 600V units and you can use the 8A version rather than the 15A version!
We've been using HEXFREDs for the last 25 years and they are in everything we make.

If they are really added into this amp as described, the tube rectifiers are really only there for show, since the voltage drops across the HEXFREDs is a fraction of that of the tube, so it isn't doing anything except glowing.
Al, the reason there are two rectifiers is so that they will hold up when the amp is at full power. At lower power levels one rectifier tube is sufficient.

IOW, the amp is be safe to operate (its been that way already) as long as the volume were not turned up (the loss of the filament load is already proven to not change the operating voltages significantly- other than the B+ is slightly lower right now). If high power demands are made, the remaining rectifier tube would eventually also fail.