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Tired of Problems with Tube Equipment

I switched over to tube audio equipment in some form some years back, and have certainly enjoyed music played back through them. I have had amps, preamps, and DACS at different times utilizing tubes. One unfortunate thing that's been common to all the tube equipment I've had are problems. It doesn't seem to matter whether the manufacturer is large or small, built in the USA or overseas, they all have had problems. Capacitors blowing out, bad solder joints, tubes only lasting a short time, loud pops that mysteriously go away on their own, etc. Although I have enjoyed the sound (and that beautiful glow!), I am starting to get tired of this and thinking of going back to solid state.

Have any of you also gone back (or thought about it) to solid state for this reason? What has your experience been with the reliability of tube equipment?
smeyers
jaymark's avatar
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jaymark
514 posts
 
I love tube pre-amps and they have been very reliable - Quicksilver and AirTight.

Tube amps are a different story. I had two and sold them both, a Music Reference and VTL monoblocks. The monoblocks were so full of problems, and the response I got from VTL was less than helpful, so I sold them to a guy who knw how to troubleshoot tube amps.

I will try another tube amp because I love the sound - but it will be a self-biasing model. That'll probably work just fine.
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mitch4t
1,611 posts
 
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I love tube preamps. However, I happen to like speakers that dip to 1 ohm....and I'm not willing to spend the kind of money that it would take to purchase tube amps that can handle such low impedances. So, I go with a tube preamp and solid state amps. Life is good.
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jaymark
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Mitch, that has been my solution for the most part - solid state amps, preferably high-powered and class A, and tube pre-amps.

If you really understand tube amps and know how to troubleshoot them, they probably are not a problem at all.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
high mitch:

are you referring to sound labs or apogees ?

a decent 200 watt + tube amp can drive a sound lab in a reasonable sized room.
wireless200
415 posts
 
02-11-09: Tvad
[...] Anyway, the answer to your question is that the tube equipment I have owned has been reliable: VAC, Lamm, Moscode, Atma-Sphere, Modwright.

Tvad, are you sure? In another thread we discussed this because you said you'd ditched a couple of tube amps due to maintenance issues. I know the size was one issue but you stated routine troubleshooting as "a lot [of work]"

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1233341924&openfrom&12&4#12
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