Is rectifier tube arcing a problem?

@dekay 

I found that thread at the Steve Hoffman Forum.  Honestly, what being explained there is beyond my technical knowledge.  I like the idea about adding a soft start, but I need to take it to my tech to do that.  But do you think adding a soft start will eliminate the arcing?

I have been running tube gear.. at first a couple components… more and more… now all tube. I have never had a piece of equipment that arched. If the second tube arched I would get rid of it. Maybe this Is just me, I have about 50 tubes in the two systems I use constantly, and no arching… never.

Some/most of it is beyond my tech knowledge as well, but I do understand the basics of it.

I've relied upon techs/friends to update my tube gear in the past and I gleaned a tiny bit of understanding from doing so

This would be good info for your local repair person to read/consider.

Until 10 years ago I did not know what the tiny transformers a friend installed on my Dynaco ST70's, being used as mono blocks, were for (power supply chokes).

He performed the modifications in 1979, and said that the stock mono/stereo switch/circuit was a bad joke.

The improvement in sound quality from the mod was not a slight one.

DeKay

Soft start will help, you also can add an UF4007 to the plate of rectifier tube to removes negative half cycle voltage and it halves the total time of voltage that feeding the arc.

@imhififan thank you. This seems something small and won’t change the sound.

min the diagram, I need to add two diodes per tube, am I correct?