Thanks for the additional information. I always learn so much from these posts.
Living With A Class A Tube Amp
I'm ready to replace my venerable Prima Luna Dialogue One amp. Just as I thought I had my choices sufficiently narrowed down, I came across Roger's EHF-100 integrated amp. It has the features I'm looking for without any frills, and has sufficient wattage to power my Sonus Faber Sonetto VIII speakers Checked out their web site and had an informative email conversation with Roger, who confirmed that this would be a good amp for my speaker. s and room. He provided me with some useful information, but I need some info from Class A tube amp owners generally.
From what I gather Class A amps produce max power at all times, therefore run hotter than a typical amp. How does this affect amp placement? My current amp is on a heavy wooden table and in front of a curtained window. Would the table need to be replaced? Do I need Nomex curtains? How does this heat affect tube life? Any other internal components subject to accelerated aging due to the heat? Any other thoughts from Class A amp owners would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
John Cotner
New Ulm, MN
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@atmasphere , thanks for clarifying that. @jrcotner , my old Cary V-12 is switchable between 100 wpc ultralinear and triode, and in triode Cary says it is 50 wpc class A. Yes, it does run hot, but I have not had to do anything special with it that I didn't do with my two previous tube amps. I bought a set of 12 EL34s (reissued Russian Mullards) near the end of 17 and after a bit two years of being pushed pretty hard and a couple of mishaps they were sounding tired and the bias was doing funny things. Sometime in early '20 I replaced them with a set of the reissued Russiian Tung Sols and they have held up beautifully (however, I don't run them as hard and no mishaps involved). As long as it doesn't get way too close to the curtains, I think you will be okay.
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@immatthewj If the amp really is class A, you do run them as hard. How loud you play the system has no bearing on the heat or tube life. If the amp is class A1, if you were to put an Ammeter in series with the AC line, you'd find the current draw unchanged regardless if the amp is at idle or full power.
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quoting from my owner's manual: "CIRCUIT TYPE: Push-Pull Ultralinear Amplification in Pure Class A" then "POWER OUTPUT 50 watts-Triode 100 watts - ultralinear." As always, I defer to your knowledge on these subjects. I had just assumed that when I was blasting away at ear bleed levels and the room was getting warmer the output tubes were taking a beating. I also acknowledge that a lot of my preconceived notions are often wrong. I will say that this current set of EL34s is holding up better than the last set, but I am sure that there could be other reasons for that.
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- 34 posts total