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Anyone Here Ever Purchased A Tube Tester?

Once or twice a day a tube sputters for a brief second in my Audio Research Reference DAC. The Reference DAC is connected directly to my amplifier and it also serves as my preamp. Visually, all of the tubes look fine. Visually, I can’t tell which tube may be bad.

The tubes are:     (4) 6H30, plus (1) 6550C and (1) 6H30 in power supply

Have any of you ever purchased a tube tester to test your tubes? If so, what tube tester are you using?

128x128mitch4t
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uncledemp
778 posts
 

I had one briefly that had three more knobs than the space station cockpit. I sold it to somebody hopefully smarter and more committed than me, which would not have been hard..,

oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
3,793 posts
 

When I started playing with 4 pin DHT and rectifiers I bought a Hickok 800.   It looks like it should be in a museum, it's that nice.  It was serviced not too long ago and have saved me from using a bad tubemore that once.  It paid for itself by not allowing tubes to damage my gear.   

dinov's avatar
dinov
831 posts
 

I use a cheap vintage tester, Superior TD65 purchased on eBay and it gives me what I need to know and works fine. I highly suggest anyone with tube gear get one. It doesn’t have to be a very expensive one, but one that will tell you if a tube is bad, weak, or not. 

vinylvalet
895 posts
 

Transcendental Sound used to sell a kit which I built and have been using for several decades. I can't imagine living without it.

@larryi I'm jealous. Been wanting the Amplitrex for a while now. Certainly the best currently available.

AMPLITREX AT1000

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