Solid states have a lot more "room" for swapping. Any tube or transistor can work as rectifier
Crucial TUBE question
I placed a KT 150 power tube into a Prima Luna Evo 300 preamp rectifier slot. I know. But what happened was surprising. The sound was, well, magnificent glorious. Nothing burned out. No smoke. No arc lights. I asked Upscale Audio to advise me as to what damage I may have done or could have done to the PL. They only said they would not advise placing anything but the original tubes in the slot. They would not commit to whether or not that power tube could be used in place of a rectifier to tube. So, is it an absolute or not? If so, why? I’d appreciate feedback (please, no slams) from anyone having any experience with this. Thanks!
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@mulveling thanks for the kind kick in the pants. I should’ve known better. and @czarivey, thanks for that info too. I’ve since pulled the KT150s (cryo and matched for crying out loud!), and I will have to sell them or save up for a powerful enough intergraded tube amp I can use them with that will push 1.7i Maggie’s. |
Did the tube glow at all? The pin configuration of a rectifier puts no voltage to the KT150 plate and does not complete the heater circuit. In other words a tube with no voltage to glow the base or the top. No glow means no power and therefore a dead channel. Unless the preamp has a solid state backup in case a tube rectifier fails which would cause problems if both channels are fed from one transformer. |
This is in part because of the power supply voltage design and transformer design . in some amplifiers it allows several choices for they built it much more rebudt. in a preamplifier look up the Ma for the kt150 voltage draw, you didnot specify your rectifier tube ,let’s say a 5ar4 it may have a different Ma voltage parameter. |
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