How to track down bad tube and what can it mean?


I recently changed the tubes in my preamp and all but the driver tubes on my amp, but these tubes didn't work out. I replaced these with the stock tubes which had been good before. Now I get distortion from the left channel which sounds like a buzzing that comes and goes with the music. It increases with the volume. I've checked all the tubes and they are placed OK. At one point with the volume loud but not too loud the system turned itself off which had never happened before. My speakers are efficient and it was not putting out more than 10 wats max when this happend.

So how can I track down a bad tube if I have one? I suppose I could replace the tubes one by one with the new ones I tried, but this is extremely tedious and makes me dream of SS. Any idea what this problem, this sound indicates?

Any help is appreciated. My sick system depresses me. Thanks.
budrew

Showing 2 responses by rockvirgo

As Maxwell Smart would say: the old tree growing in the speaker routine, eh? Glad you solved the mystery!
If the buzzing continues to exist in one channel only, start by swapping each pair left and right until the distortion hops channels. Too tedious? You could always pay someone else to check it out.

Buzzing commonly indicates a faulty tube. Then again, there are some species of moth that like to nest in the tube sockets...

Take heart. Be patient. Keep telling yourself how happy you'll be once it's all sorted out.