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Limberpine

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2 minutes ago, billybob said:

That's right, remember now. Best of both worlds. Do you ever run the Dynaco amp with the Cornwall's?

Yup, for awhile, before I had the LA Scala's, I only ran the Dynaco on the Cornwalls. What I have noticed is that the Cornwalls have more bass, but the La Scalas have way more detail. So after getting the tube problem solved, I may look at ways to increase some of the bass in the LA Scalas, because I think getting that little bit of extra bass, with them, could really create an amazing experience.

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1 minute ago, Limberpine said:

Yup, for awhile, before I had the LA Scala's, I only ran the Dynaco on the Cornwalls. What I have noticed is that the Cornwalls have more bass, but the La Scalas have way more detail. So after getting the tube problem solved, I may look at ways to increase some of the bass in the LA Scalas, because I think getting that little bit of extra bass, with them, could really create an amazing experience.

And about your amp, did the problem with buzz suddenly occur, and when?

Thanks again!

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3 minutes ago, billybob said:

And about your amp, did the problem with buzz suddenly occur, and when?

Thanks again!

So, not long after I got the Dynaco( Arrived to me on October 12th), a red spot developed on one of the power tubes ( October 16th), . I replaced that power tube and everything went back to normal.  Then, I noticed a teeny tiny bit of noise when they were on the Cornwalls when standing right next to them and then very faint when sitting in the listening position about 8ft away. Once the basement was finished ( I had a more robust electrical outlet installed where I was going to place the stereo equipment https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-20-Amp-Industrial-Grade-Heavy-Duty-Isolated-Ground-Duplex-Outlet-Orange-R71-05362-IGS/100356987)

I took the Dynaco down and set it up with the La Scalas ( Around November 15th) and the noise seemed to progress and get louder to the point at which I started asking some questions on here as well as asking questions of to the builder, because it really interfered with the listening experience and seemed to be exacerbated by the addition of the tube per-amp I hooked up to it, which was a brand new build. The builder of the Dynaco has said I should just sent it back to him to have him look it over then fix it, because he thinks it could a bad filter capacitor, but I wanted to make sure I exhaust all options before doing that, given the cost and risk that comes along with shipping.

 

Pic of redspot on October 16:

 

20201016_130637.jpg

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Well, have you taken your amp out of the basement by itself and tested it with another speaker upstairs where the CW is, just see if louder buzz downstairs?

Before we get into it further and pl lease do the phono jack thing for others as directed. Always unplug amp first.

I am curious about what that new receptacle with isolated grounding is about.

Did an Electrician do the work?

And, when you found his mistake as you said using your outlet checker, did you see a grounding wire coming from the house ground coming to your new outlet?

Thanks and be careful and relaxed before doing work with a/c voltage.

Guessing you had a breaker to switch off before doing your recent outlet fix.

Do you have a dedicated breaker switch for the basement addition?

If so, you should see the new white Romex coming to and from the breaker and outlet. 3 wires to and from the breaker and outlet and possibly a bare copper to panel box.

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builder of the Dynaco has said I should just sent it back to him to have him look it over then fix it, because he thinks it could a bad filter capacitor, but I wanted to make sure I exhaust all options before doing that, given the cost and risk that comes along with shipping.

 

Pic of redspot on October 16:

 

bb:

It could well come to that. A good seller would want that. Safety first and last.

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Know we are covering a lot of ground here(ha) but, Is that the Schiit passive sys?

 

Really curious how an electrician could make such a basic wiring mistake that you have to correct?!?

 

Also, guessing hum should be Abit louder in basement with the sensitive LS.

Alright...

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20 minutes ago, billybob said:

Well, have you taken your amp out of the basement by itself and tested it with another speaker upstairs where the CW is, just see if louder buzz downstairs?

Before we get into it further and pl lease do the phono jack thing for others as directed. Always unplug amp first.

I am curious about what that new receptacle with isolated grounding is about.

Did an Electrician do the work?

And, when you found his mistake as you said using your outlet checker, did you see a grounding wire coming from the house ground coming to your new outlet?

Thanks and be careful and relaxed before doing work with a/c voltage.

Guessing you had a breaker to switch off before doing your recent outlet fix.

Do you have a dedicated breaker switch for the basement addition?

If so, you should see the new white Romex coming to and from the breaker and outlet. 3 wires to and from the breaker and outlet and possibly a bare copper to panel box.

I will test with CW.

I will do the Phono thing tonight.

It was a GC who did the work, who has electrical experience, but we also fired him, so there is that.

Yes, there is a grounding wire that comes from the house and that is hooked up outlet.

Yes, it is on a  20amp breaker and I had to switch it off to change the outlet and make it right.

No, unfortunately, the breaker situation is pretty scatter and the whole basement is scattered across like 1-2 breakers......which I'm now realizing I wish  I would have knwo more now to have it on one circuit.

 

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Well, not an electrician  myself and thinking it was maybe a GC.

 

Do not have more to say atm but, I tend to give ideas to people to mull over. That and sometimes direct thoughts. Idea being since you are there, you may be able to sort it or, come to a conclusion.

Since there is others pulling for you, let me know when enough.

 

Is their another surge protector on system upstairs?

Lol

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On 12/3/2020 at 7:55 PM, Limberpine said:

Set the SS up and there isn't any hum. Just had to listen to some tunes! 

 

Will make the RCA short here soon and post pictures to make sure its right and retest the tube amp. 

Sorry I've been off line all day...so a different amp (SS) with everything else the same and result is everything is OKEE DOKEE. Well then something is wrong with the tube amp.

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No. Just for kicks take a gem clip and stick one end into the RCA input hole and stick the other end to the outside of the RCA input on both channels. Then you are shorting the input and see what happens. Right now I am like you and of the opinion there is something wrong with the amplifier. 

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Limberpine, sorry so late here. I came back and said omg 6 pages! What happened? Then I read along. I've been through everything you are going through and then some. You wouldn't believe the things I've tried to remove buzz. Made some interesting discoveries along the way the past couple of years. Here's the issue with the ST70 I have as well as most amps.  THEY DON'T HAVE ATTENUATORS and the ST70 is one of them. I tried Bob Latino's attenuator for the ST70 but it was horrible. It totally ruined the sound of the bass and only worked from the 3 o'clock to 4 o'clock position. I just had the whole thing removed and didn't even want it in the circuit anymore. The gain on the ST70 is insane no matter what it's coupled with!  I can't believe others don't even talk about this. You have all that gain combined with a highly efficient speakers like the heritage line and it's a bad combo. My Decware SE84UFO has a built in attenuator and it works like a charm. Even the Parasound A23 Halo has attenuators and my Aretha played nicely with both. 

 

Then you have these guys that are OCD about noise. Not referring to you! Your situation is totally justified, but these other guys who put their ears up to the speakers and listen for anything they can find are seriously OCD. If it bothers them that much, then just add an attenuator to calm things down some. Even the McIntosh MC30 tube amps had attenuators. I realize if the buzz is excessive, there's only so much you can attenuate out of it. Here's something that recently happened for reasons my friend is investigating as of last night. Currently I'm running my Heresy II's with two preamps. One is the Funtastic Dynakit PAS-M which is insanely good and the Erhard Aretha which is also insanely good. I've compared all sorts of amps and preamps. I even spoke to Will Vincent on the phone last year. For some reason still unknown to my friends and I, when the Aretha is coupled to the new Dynakit ST120 solid state, it goes completely quiet and it sound absolutely incredible. Out comes this beautiful, open airy sound stage like all the instruments are floating in space. Even when I turn the ST120's attenuator all the way up, the Aretha is still completely quiet. I recently ordered another Dynakit ST120 solid state from Kenny at Funtastic Vintronics for my second system which with replace my ST70. My friend Luigi is reading up on the stats of the newer Dynakit ST120 solid state that Kenny makes at Funtastic to see if he can find out why the Aretha is so quiet by comparison with it and we are going to talk more tonight. 

 

 

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I found a place locally that loans out Amps, so I have given that a go while mine is being fixed. I tried out a Omaha od-300b for the last couple days, I found great detail using these on the La Scalas, but it lacks a teeny bit of ommph when compared to the St-70. Which is probably to be expected when comparing the Omaha at 10watts per channel to the ST-7- at 35 wpc. Am I right there? Or does it have more to do with SET vs PP?

 

The Omaha was lackluster on the Cornwalls in my opinion. I really like the ST-70 much more on the Cornwalls when comparing the St-70 to the Omaha.

 

The Omaha is nice, but is integrated, so I don't get to use my pre with it, which is really a non starter since I just bought it, but I thought it would be a good chance to hear some 300b's.

 

It looks like they have a  Quad II Forty monoblocks that I might be able to try out too. I might see where that goes. What I do know is that my SS is good, but I really do just love tubes and what they bring, even if they are a lil more finicky!

 

Fun fun!

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