Tung sol 6550 tube smell??


I bought new tung sol 6550 tubes for my audio research vs110. The original tubes for that amp were sventlana 6550 tubes that were great and i never noticed a smell from the amp. When i put in the tung sol reissues, i biased the amp at 55ma to save some tube life. When i had the sventlanas, they were at the recommended 65ma. So i dont know why i have a pretty strong burning smell comming from the tung sols. Is this because the tubes are new, or mabey they cant handle the bias? im very concerned, i hope my amp dont blow up or the tubes. Thanks, rob
barruch86
What they said. Generally, if you look at the tube anode plates in a darkened room, they should not be glowing red, even slightly.
The ink on the tubes smells a bit when first powered up. It goes away in a few hours.
What you smell is the silk screen printing on the glass envelope curing with the heat. It will go away with use.
This is a common issue with Russian-built power tubes, but not really a problem otherwise.
I experienced the same thing when I first switched power tubes in my Jolida a while back...new KT120s. Freaked me out but it stopped, so I can only assume the tubes have some external coating or an adhesive on the tube base or something, as it happened again when I stuck a new pair of 88s in the thing. I now simply call it the "new tube smell." It went away after the tubes were in use for a day or 2 and never came back. I bias according to the amp specs, not the tube type recommendations and that seems to work for my amp as it sounds fine and the 120s are holding up well.