how do you know a bad tube?

Capt369
i apologize for not promptly or even regularly giving some followup there. i will.

Larryi
yeah. i was just hoping aginnst hope, I had overlooked something easy, or some other fashion or method going forward to check things out. if I do wind up with a pair of tube mono blocks as well, and something goes awry, I'll have a coniption fit trying to swap in and out tubes from a second set as was mentioned previously... but is a good idea. one I have followed in the past. one also that is a mite pricey. As I chose then to get them all from reputable dealers and none have actually gone bad on me Save the first set i got which came with the preamp, but were disposed of shortly thereafter. man. if there is anything I hate to do it's trash a tube that still lights up, and it is tiresome and expensive to send them out to have checked. Not to mention the waiting period (s).

OK. A second set instead of a tester. Super.

Does anyone make one tube monos?

What is cheap for a tube tester compared to a second set of tubes at today's spiraling prices or damaging a component with a bad tube?

I found a Sencore Mity Mite VII for $100 without looking to hard. But even at $200 or $300 if you have a long term commitment to tube gear then it makes sense to have one.

Entrope

yes, $100 - $300 is cheap. I'd have no issues going for something like that. My concerns, are it's use. meter/display size, and calibration needs... doing twin triodes, large power tubes, in all, it's flexibility and naturally it's accuracy.

meters/displays need be of substantioal size for me. Figuring it out is not much of a problem there after. although I appear dumb as a stump sometimes, i don't believe I really am.

Waht resource sells these things?

they won't look you in the eye.

How ironic the timing for a personal delima. Last nite I turned off my pre-amp fist and got a right side pop in my speaker. Since I hadn't turned off my amp 'it had to be as a result of something in the pre'.

Switched tubes from side to side as I had suggested. No change! Then I went to the amp and switched one of the sets of small tubes. Not only did the pop leave the right channel it left the system (for now anyway). If I had a tube tester I could probably test it and detect some imbalance that I can't hear in use. I'm not sure if that is a loss.

Back in the days I was frugal and thought my tubes would (should) last forever I had a spare tube of each type set aside for testing. Then when I changed tube sets I had lots of tubes available for testing as well as spares.

My biggest fear about owning a tester is just imagine how anal you could get about tube condition and how much time you could spend monitoring their condition. Oh, my. Got enuf on my plate worrying about things like set-up etc with out taking on that responsibility.

Have fun, it ain't really a big deal. I am as dumb as a stump, even if I don't appear to be so sometimes. :-)