@jambaj
As I said in one of the posts above,
I am extremely hawkish on finding the root cause of a problem, because without knowing the cause, a permanent and reliable "fix" cannot be implemented.
In your case
- it appears to have been a simple problematic "tube issue"
- or was it? could there be something in the design of the amp?
When I experienced problems with my Chinese Tube amp
Factor in things like " a "leaker," or gassy tube" and it increases the probability for something to "fail"
I have had the Helix power cables on every single piece of audio equipment I own, for over 4 years, and to date - not one component has had any issues.
If I were in your position - I would have the amp looked at by someone that is very experienced with fixing tube gear. It might have been something as simple as a "leaker or gassy tube", but it could be something more serious.
When something fails - there is a very specific reason and sometime it is not what we might be suspecting.
In my case my amp had the wrong power transformer, underrated resistors/capacitors, and underrated PCB traces - all of which had no real impact on sound quality - the only issue - it destroyed tubes after just six months of use.
By contrast - a friend of mine is still using the same tubes for 35 years - his amp was a great design and it was well built.
One last thought - WRT the comment you received from Western Electric
I would write to "The Tube Store" and ask them the same question and see what they say.
www.thetubestore.com - Your online source for audio vacuum tubes.
I purchased all my tubes from them and they ensure all the tubes they send out are in pristine condition. You might want to try tubes from there in future - just a thought :-)
Regards - Steve
As I said in one of the posts above,
Unfortunately, component designers can push their designs very close to a "limit" to squeeze out every ounce of performanceI have experienced component failure once before after a braided power cable was used with it
- they do not know what components and cables you will be using with their product
- so changing something as simple as a power cable can cause issues.
- the root cause of that failure was in fact the speaker cables being used - not the power cable
- the new power cable allowed the amp to work more efficiently, which caused it to exceed a "threshold" and the amp failed
- once the speaker cables were changed the amp worked perfectly with the new power cable
I am extremely hawkish on finding the root cause of a problem, because without knowing the cause, a permanent and reliable "fix" cannot be implemented.
In your case
- it appears to have been a simple problematic "tube issue"
- or was it? could there be something in the design of the amp?
When I experienced problems with my Chinese Tube amp
- I thought - "it must have been the tubes"
- when I suffered a second failure I went looking for problems with that amp
- I found reports it had been poorly constructed.
- I was lucky in that I found a technician that was very familiar with the problems related to my amp and fixed it for a reasonable fee
- am I confident the Helix Power cable WILL NOT be the CAUSE of any future issues? - and my answer to that is YES, I am very confident!
- am I confident your amp will not suffer any further problems? - unfortunately the answer to that is NO!
Factor in things like " a "leaker," or gassy tube" and it increases the probability for something to "fail"
I have had the Helix power cables on every single piece of audio equipment I own, for over 4 years, and to date - not one component has had any issues.
If I were in your position - I would have the amp looked at by someone that is very experienced with fixing tube gear. It might have been something as simple as a "leaker or gassy tube", but it could be something more serious.
When something fails - there is a very specific reason and sometime it is not what we might be suspecting.
In my case my amp had the wrong power transformer, underrated resistors/capacitors, and underrated PCB traces - all of which had no real impact on sound quality - the only issue - it destroyed tubes after just six months of use.
By contrast - a friend of mine is still using the same tubes for 35 years - his amp was a great design and it was well built.
One last thought - WRT the comment you received from Western Electric
I would write to "The Tube Store" and ask them the same question and see what they say.
www.thetubestore.com - Your online source for audio vacuum tubes.
I purchased all my tubes from them and they ensure all the tubes they send out are in pristine condition. You might want to try tubes from there in future - just a thought :-)
Regards - Steve