**Smoking integrated tube amp, advice needed:

Hey everyone, thanks for the help! I think it’s necessary to highlight that I don’t have any ‘in real life’ friends or family who are into this hobby, so I’m very much reliant upon communities such as this to help with my education. I appreciate the anecdotes and insights into your own experiences, mishaps and successes. 

I’m admittedly wet behind the ears when it comes to this, but I exercised as much due diligence as I could in the lead up to this moment, triple/quadruple checking that everything was plugged in correctly and the tubes were well-seated prior to powering the amplifier on - aware as I am of the potential dangers of running tube equipment incorrectly. (I even turn the Bellari off whenever I leave the room, so I’m vigilant in this regard.)

There is no damage to the shipping box, but unfortunately the seller didn’t reply to my request to remove and individually package the tubes prior to posting, so there’s every possibility that something may have been damaged in transit. I’m covered by the 30 day money back guarantee, so I have no concerns there - just a little disappointed, but mainly relieved that the rest of my component chain seems unaffected.

“assuming the white speaker terminal is labeled negative or 0[…]”

• Correct, the speaker terminal is labeled 0

I’ve learned some interesting tidbits from this thread, but lets also not speculate on the circumstances surrounding, nor the motivation for the purchase (or even my dedication [or perceived lack thereof]to taking this seriously). I also don’t think we should be prescriptive about the ways that people can enjoy this hobby! We all start somewhere, following different paths to get to where we are, making mistakes and picking up vital lessons as we go. That’s the beauty of this for me, and while frustrating, I’m glad for the potential to learn from this. 

All this being said, I really do consider it a privilege to lean into the evident collective expertise of the group here, so sincerely, thank you to everyone for taking the time. I’ll likely take the amp to a local AV specialist for a verdict, as I’ve read only positive reviews of the unit online. Cheers everyone!

@fugazikid1991 exciting times, trying out Tube Gear.  Sounds like a damaged unit and or defective part in the chain.  Doesn’t sound like you did anything at all to cause the issue.  You have a 30 day return option so you should be a good spot to decide if you want to try and figure out the issue, repair the unit or send it back.  
 

It’s cool that you ordered your unit from a Charity Shop, guessing the proceeds will benefit those in need, that’s awesome.  Most of those types of shops aren’t experts in what they are selling, they get such a range of donated items they really can’t be.  Bring that up as they likely plugged the unit in, if it turned on, they figured it was good to go.  Possible they didn’t even hook it up to a set of speakers and since it doesn’t have an old school FM / AM tuner, they would have to also have had a source to hook up, along with speakers. 
 

Looked up your unit as I wasn’t familiar with the it, from a design standpoint, looks to be engineered / built based on proven tube amp design.  If you end up sending it back, give a look to brands that offer a good network of support in the U.S and have features like self bias and a bad tube indicator.  Those features really take the guess work out of Tube gear and some of the maintenance, hassle.  Prima Luna one brand that offers these features but there are plenty of others.  Enjoy the hobby, enjoy what sounds good to you and take some of the comments you’ll see on posts with a grain of salt.  Audiophiles are a strange bread, they can be a little cranky or extremely concocted at times but also can be extremely welcoming, giving of time and really willing to help. 
 

Beat of luck! 

There is no damage to the shipping box, but unfortunately the seller didn’t reply to my request to remove and individually package the tubes prior to posting, so there’s every possibility that something may have been damaged in transit.

@fugazikid1991 If this is the case the elements in the tubes might have gotten bent up and able to short. This could easily lead to smoke!! Bad move on the part of the seller.

Yes the tubes should have been removed and packed separately you clearly did everything right. I’d just return it and chalk it up to chance and buying used. 

This sounds like a short in the tube connections. The amp itself could be 13 years old if it's a first year model MT34, and so may have been passed around beforehand. 

Stick with tubes! They really pay off and are much less fussy than some here make them out to be. Black Ice Audio, Rogue, LSA, and Cayin are well reviewed inexpensive (a relative term, I know) tube brands.