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Help Smoke rising from 300B amp

Hi all. Happy New Year!

Can anyone offer advice as to what I should or can do?

My situation: I just came into possession of a used 300B integrated amp (Audion Silver Night (single-ended) 300B) which is a few years old. I read all the reviews I could find and the manual on the Audion website before doing anything. I put the tubes in the way the website and other photos showed and the manual indicated, and put the EC88 and 5687 tubes in the right sockets according to the manual. I hooked up interconnects and speaker cables and plugged it in (volume knob set at zero).

I turned on the switch and after a few seconds, acrid smoke started rising from the amp (through the holes around the tube sockets). I immediately turned it off, unplugged it from the wall, took out interconnects, and took the speaker cables off at the speaker end. There it sits.

My wife was petrified. She asked me to seek help before touching it further.

Safety first -
Can I touch the amp (metal chassis) without worry of electrocuting myself from current still in the caps (or any other reason)? Are there any safety precautions I should take in handling it in the immediate future which are necessary because of what just happened?

Second -
What did I do wrong? Anything? Everything? Despite my research, did I put the 300Bs in wrong? Any ideas?

Third -
What is likely to need fixing/replacement?

Thanks
Travis
t_bone
jond's avatar
jond
5,794 posts
 
When you look at the pins at the bottom of the 300B tubes not that two are larger and two are smaller. Make sure the pins are plugged into the right sockets based on their size. This is a very common mistake. However at this point I wouldn't mess with the amp again until a tech has looked it over. No point in doing further harm to either you or the amp.
bora's avatar
bora
61 posts
 
hey travis........it sounds like the amp needs a new rectifier.......its not bringing enough current to the 300 b's, find an audion dealer in your area...it should not cost a lot to fix this problem.......unless you can fix it your self......? happy new year!
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,555 posts
 
T Bone:

Don't power/fire it up again. When facing the front of the amp the two small pins of the 300B should be on the left side of the socket assuming the amps/sockets are stock (check to see if this is how they were installed). You already know that the 6922 goes to the left (the 5687 to the right).

If the 300B's (one or both) were installed differently Audion's US rep/importer has been through this before and can advise you on what to do from there. Chances are the amp will require service.

Don't have the address handy, but a web search of "OSS Services Audion" should take you to the rep's site.

On a side note if you have JJ 300B's their pins are too small to make proper contact in the Audion's sockets (@ least the pins on my JJ's 3 years ago were). The sockets can be adjusted/shimmed to work, but all in all JJ's were a poor match with the amp (my least favrite 300B by a long shot in the SN).
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