Is this describing a blown tube, or two blow tubes?


I installed a new set of JJ e34’s a few days ago. Last night there was a very loud POP and one of the tube went bright so I moved quickly and turned of the midmonos.

 

After they cooled I inspected the tubes and they seemed fine so I reinstalled them thinking maybe it was some kind of impurity within the tube. I’ve never experienced a blown tube before.

 

The amps ran great this evening until just now, and another POP and bright tube, but it seemed like it was the other tube, but I can’t be sure. This was followed by a low whistle or hum and I turned the amps off again.

 

Is this simply a run of the mill faulty tube? Could two blow in one day, or could the first one POP like that and then continue to work for another day?

 

Since Ive never experienced a tube fail before, could this have anything to do with the Amp, or is it just a bad tube or tubes?

 

Should I worry about putting my old tube back in?

 

Thank you,

 

TD

 

128x128tonydennison

Showing 2 responses by marantz33

I also have a set of quicksilver mid mono and have lost a tube before. You described my experience to a t. For what it's worth I was running mine with kt120 for a long time until I decided to try the el34 which as I understand the amps were voiced for. My humble opinion is that JJ stands for junk junk. JJ tubes are the only brand that I have bought that were bad out of the box and I have an audio buddy who's experience has been the same. I run my mid mono with Tung Sol and could not be more pleased. I am not sure what they are getting for those tubes now after the embargo but I seem to remember not paying a lot of money for them. I hope this was helpful.

@tonydennison

Yeah.. I checked with Mike Sanders when retubing although now you're making me wonder if it was kt150. The tubes I was using went with a pair of prima Luna prologue 6 monos that I sold a few months back. Had them biased at 42 and they were glorious sounding with a fuller lower end but at the cost of some of that mid-range sweetness. I decided I could do with a little less bass for that wonderful liquid mid-range sound. I have used the genelex 12au7 and 12ax7 and found them to be very detailed. I am running a CJ premier 11a now (winged c 6550 and nos Raytheon 6fq7 and 5751s) but work the quicksilvers into the rotation occasionally. Now that I think of it the exception of Kenrad preamp tube the only time I've ever had a tube blow it was a JJ. Have a great night