Ringing Sound In Tube Gear


I recently have begun noticing a feint "ringing" sound while playing my Onix H34 integrated. It comes and goes and I'm sure it's not my ears. Could this be a problem with the output tubes? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks
128x128tarraga
No, the ringing does not increase with the volume. These EL34 tubes aren't very old (I replaced them just this past spring). Thanks for your input.
hmmm...take them out, tap them gently on top and replace them back in the socket? i do get occassional ringing (faint), and Brent Jessee has recommended this easy first step. It has worked for me in the past.
The others have hinted at this, but tubes can be microphonic. The glass shell can vibrate with the sound in the room and this can get amplified again. Some brands or types of tubes are worse than others in this regard. Normally one would expect any problem to increase with playback volume.

An easy test is to tap very lightly on a tube with a pencil and see if you hear anything through the speakers. If so, tube dampers can help with this issue.
Is the ringing coming from one channel or both? If one channel try swithcing the tubes to the opposing channel and see if the ringing moves.

Do you hear it in both channels? If so for it to be a tube it would most likely be one that services both channels. I'm not familar with your amp but a single tube serving two channels is not uncommon, they have two sections.

Ringing is most often associated with the small tubes, try them first.

In my experience ringing in power tubes is not common except for a headphone amp I use :-), so it is possible, but again it would usually appear in only one channel.