MC 240 ReTube or Replace


About a year and a half ago I acquired an old McIntosh MC 240.

I replaced the capacitors and retubed it using:

Genalex Gold Lion 12AU7 gol

Genalex Gold Lion 12AX7 gold

Tube Amp Doctor TAD 12BH7

TUNG-SOL 7581A

 

Now after some 1,000 hours of operation, driving a pair of Salk SS 6m speakers, one channel will intermittently give out a blast of static within minutes of power up and blows the fuse. This leads me to believe I have a tube which may be intermittently shorting.

 

With the MC 240 being almost 60 years old I’m wondering if modern technology has surpassed it.

Thus, the question retube or replace it.

 

Currently my choices are:

Quick Silver 60 watt mono amps

Mc Gary Audio SA 1

Van Alstine Vision SET 400

 

I would appreciate any comments.

TNX



pelletfan
PM me to offload it cheap, and I help you out.
Alternatively it sounds like it could be a capacitor. Any decent tube person will likely be able to sort it out.
It could also be something with the speaker (like an XO cap), which is presenting a difficult load, or oscillation…
You could switch the RHS and LHS channels to ensure it is related to the amplifier channel.And also which the driving source like a CD player with different interconnects into the unit with LHS/RHS swapped.
I am not even 100% certain it is the amplifier. My amp was also bad until I found it was a bad set of interconnects… Not the ones that I had just soldered up, but the 5 year old store bought ones.
Thanks for the suggestion of lifts....I've used them over the years for several motorcycle builds :-)BUT you still have to get the amp onto the lift And THEY DON'T DO STAIRS WELL :-)
OK I swapped the output tubes side to side, reseated all the other tubes and replaced the internal b+ fuse.I powered it up and listened to it for 2 3/4 hours with no problems....
That has been it's history...  After 3 or so power ups .. a burst of static and a blown fuse.

We'll see what happens next :-(
It sure sounds like a valve or a bad connection at a valve. Clean and tighten the pin pockets. Then take the valves and plunge them into a cotton ball with WD40 a dozen times. Wipe everything off and insert the valves back in the sockets.. 101 valve maintenance..

On that PS rebuild, did you re-bias the the PS, did it come with a little pot? or did it have a fixed resistor?

7581 vs 6L6GC 23watts vs 30watts, your better off with 6L6WGC (military aircraft) or just GC 30 watt valve, tough too.

Regards