Ok. I guess that could happen. Fortunately never to me. My ARC Ref amps have a 3.5 minute warm up before coming on-line and the preamp (Ref 6SE) has a 1.5 minute warm up before coming on-line. So unless I go get a cup of coffee between turning on the preamp and amp that will not happen. I guess ARC thought of everything. Cool. |
Thanks, @jea48 , I just remember reading here that an ampifier should not be turned on unless it was hooked to a speaker load and had a preamp connected to it and turned on. And I am pretty sure I have read that an amp should be biased with the preamp turned off. The two seemed to me to contradict one another so I was just wondering how folks were doing their biasing. With all that above being typed, it is possible that I misunderstood something along the way. Thanks again for the input. |
If an ARC amp does not have auto bias, then the amp should be on for 20 minutes before adjusting bias. ARC amps can be on with no input cables, and without speakers cables connected. They are perfectly stable. This is not true for some other tube amps so it's best to check with them first. jea48's recommendations above are spot-on. Turn the bias pots down before putting in a new set of tubes! |
@arcguy , I once owned a pair of ARC VTM120s, and for all the good things I can say about them, I would hesitate to use the term "perfectly stable." |
