gs5556
Responses from gs5556
| Outlet is "Open Ground" - Is There Still a Safe Way to Connect to My Audio Gear? I assume that the receptacle is standard 3-prong and "Open Ground" was read from a plug in outlet tester. What you can do is remove the outlet and check the ground connections. Sometimes the grounding wire is wrapped around a screw on the box and... | |
| Speaker internal amp shutting off due to heat 80 degrees (or 27C) is about the rated ambient temperature for the active components in an amplifier so that in itself is not likely the issue. Amplifiers usually have a temperature sensing system comprised of heat sink thermostats and associated ... | |
| Quality answer to dangers of Tube amps running under no load I don't really agree with that explanation, it applies more to an ideal transformer. If there is no load on the secondary there is no magnetic field from the secondary current to reflect so the primary becomes one big inductor. An inductor's imped... | |
| Yamaha A-S801 no output It seems the CD output is not getting to the receiver. Try using the stock (or another pair of) RCA cables. Sometimes these expensive connectors fall short just enough not to make contact. Also give another look at where the RCA’s are plugged into... | |
| repair restore classe ca300 Try looking inside and see if there are any fuses and check them. A lot of amplifiers have rail fuses -- one for each negative and positive voltage rail -- to protect speakers against a transistor short. Usually, if only one side blows it results ... | |
| Weird crackling from speakers when preamp connected Are you using the RCA terminals on the Vega and the 275? (Just to confirm you are checking the same inputs and the XLR isn't bypassing an RCA input connection problem at the amp). Crackling can be a bad connection on the RCA ground. But if the pr... | |
| Do vacuum tube test values reflect sound quality? You really cannot tell anything about sound quality from test numbers. In fact, test numbers can be misleading. For example. if you test two tubes of the same type and one has a higher transconductance than the other, it is assumed that tube will ... | |
| Can you do anything to make power tubes last longer ? Check the heater voltages. If they are above spec, the tubes will fade a lot quicker. Most of the time this is due to high wall voltage above 120V (or 240V) so you can't do much about that other than a transformer. If the wall power is okay then t... | |
| What does 90% of the Absolute Best Sound Cost? Problem with price comparisons is not every dollar goes to sound quality. For starters, you have to adjust for dealer and distributor markup. Then add the large overhead and marketing costs for large companies. Fancy milled cases also add a premiu... | |
| Preamp Output Completely Different with Tube Amplifier versus Solid State Amplifier By looking at the specs, the First Watt has an input sensitivity of 530mV for a 1-watt output at 8 ohms and the ATM-300 has an input sensitivity of 290mV for a 9-watt output at 8 ohms. That is 29dB gain vs a 15dB gain for the First Watt. Also, I ... | |
| Question about high current amps versus "not high current amps" Amplifiers are not about power. Power is consumed by the load, whether it's a resistor, a motor or a speaker driver. The amplifier is an energy source and does not necessarily follow Ohm's Law. As an example, if you short a 9-volt battery with a 1... | |
| Stereophile review of the new Wilson Watt/Puppy Did the reviewer use the word "reticent"? Because it means the speaker is restrained or holding back when it comes to pop and rock, as compared to jazz and orchestral. Doesn't make sense to me either as orchestral has a much wider dynamic range... | |
| I hate to say it, but now I think maybe I like my amp in ultralinear mode versus triode UL mode is a pentode in "partial triode" mode. The screen and plate are operated at the same voltage and when the screen is tapped at the load (plate) it's triode mode and pentode mode when the screen is tapped at the B+ of the transformer. In bet... | |
| Issue with Krell KSA-250 What I would first start to look for: Check for DC at the wall outlet. Check if the transformer cover can be moved by hand, if so then look at the bolts holding down the cover. Remove the cover and see if the rubber or elastomer bushing is still ... | |
| Why tube rectification? Tube rectifiers develop a larger forward voltage drop than silicon rectifiers (up to 50 volts for the tube vs about 2 to 3 volts for the diodes) so that may have quite an effect on the amp as it will change the operating parameters. I would vote N... |