maxg Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 Yesterday morning I paid a visit to my local stereo supplier and came away with some new feet for my Project RPM4. I have been meaning to get a new, better set to replace the stock items for an age - and as we got all our mobile telephones from him for our company, and the agreement lapses soon - I took the opportunity. Details at: http://www.superspikes.com/ So last night, whilst we were buggering about with Tony's small speaker disasters I fitted the feet to the TT and stood by to test them out properly later. Tony left around 10:30 and finally got the baby to sleep about an hour later. At last - I get to test the feet. Place record on TT - adjust volume to my usual low setting - sit down - 10 seconds later there is a dull farting sound and a pop from the right channel and it goes down. FART!!! Check speaker wires - all ok. Check interconnects - all OK. try another source - same thing. Damnit. Pull TV and stereo away from the wall. nothing obvious. Power down pre-amp and amp - disconnect pre and plug TV into amp to act as a source and volume control (it is able to play through an external amp - handy) - no change. Firstly - phew - nothing wrong with the pre. Pull out amp from the wall (it is hidden behind the TV usually) - notice 2 fuse holders - first one is fine - little glas tube, wire intact. Second one is little black tube - completely opaque!! That must have really blown - why? Swap good fuse into other side - power up everything and wait for the bang (using satellite receiver as source). Now the other channel is playing fine. Hmmmm. Hunt around the house. Find 11 different fuses - none the right one- typical!!! Put everything back as it was and picked up a set of 10 new fuses this morning - 60 cents! Tonight I will have to see if there is a generic problem somewhere or if it was a one off event. Still - thank god for fuses - at least I know nothing is blown that is expensive. If it blows again I am going to detach every single wire and re-do them - it is real spagetti back there and there may be a loose connection somewhere. wish me luck!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted April 23, 2004 Author Share Posted April 23, 2004 ---------------- On 4/23/2004 7:53:48 AM mdeneen wrote: What sort of amp is this, Max? mdeneen ---------------- You are teasing me arent you Mark... Is there anyone on this forum who does not know I am running the Tsakiridis PowerHouse? http://www.tsakiridis-devices.com/Powerhouse.htm Hopefully there isnt a more serious problem awaiting me "under the hood" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted April 23, 2004 Author Share Posted April 23, 2004 ---------------- On 4/23/2004 9:54:55 AM mdeneen wrote: Well, actually I wasn't teasing - I have a hard time remembering everyone's setup - even my OWN. Since it is tubes, if more fuses blow, start checking those EL34s. mdeneen ---------------- Will do - thanks for the heads up! (I wasnt sure if you were teasing or not - not because there is any reason you should remember my setup other than the somewhat different name....) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted April 23, 2004 Author Share Posted April 23, 2004 What a nightmare that was!!! Fuses kept on a blowin' and I have had a devil of a time tracking it down. Eventually I call the Mr Tsakiridis and we discuss - he reckons (like Mark) that a tube is at fault. Easy way to tell - swap the 4 tubes on the right with the 4 on the left. If it blows on the same side as before its not the tubes and VV. So I change the tubes - switch them on - put the TV Sat receiver through the amp and wait, and wait, and wait....its fine. Call Tsakiridis again. Weird. "Did you move the amp to switch the tubes?" "yup" "either something loose in the amp (inlikely) or a cable (more likely)." Well I cant do f**k about what is inside the amp - so lets play with the cables. Pull the interconnects out of the amps and notice that the cable leading under the connector is strangely rucked up. Undo connector - nothing looks obviously wrong but I am suspicious - swap them out. Thus far (now 2 more hours) all is well and the amp is back in its normal position. Of course now we have guests (wife's name day - they are still arriving and it is 11:45 pm - I have semi retired to the office for some peace - no-one has noticed yet). And I still want to see what those feet have done!!! (of course now I have swapped the interconnects it will be doubly hard to evaluate differences - and I switched from the 4 ohm taps to the 8 ohm taps during my investigations - oh hell - this is going to be impossible!!) Not one of my better days... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avman Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 sorry to hear of the troubles. try to take the time(i know-hard to find)and run your wires(especially the higher voltage ones)NEATLY!! man! that looks like one awesome amp!! avman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 Yup one of the tubes lost contact with the grid and ran away bias was the result !! Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dzapper Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 Or when playing with the party speakers,and back, the output cables were shorted. When you moved the amp you moved the cables. Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted April 24, 2004 Author Share Posted April 24, 2004 I think 3d is the winner of the "what happened?" contest, but I cannot be sure - maybe one of the tubes did become unseated or something - I just cant quite see how - the amps dont move around and the way they are placed they are fairly protected. Anyway - the last guest departed at around 1 and I got 2 hours listening in with the new feet and the various other minor changes I made during diagnosis. 2 immediate, and possible related, observations: 1. It now sounds absolutely brilliant. 2. I am out of Glenfidich... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dzapper Posted April 24, 2004 Share Posted April 24, 2004 Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted April 25, 2004 Author Share Posted April 25, 2004 ---------------- On 4/24/2004 9:10:24 AM mdeneen wrote: You could probably mark the side of the bottle as it drains with a grease pen: ---Sounds good ---Wow, sounds even better ---Outstanding ---Man, I can't believe what I am hearing now! mdeneen ---------------- Excelent Mark, My new rating system for audio components is now ready - the emptying Whiskey bottle - the less there is in the bottle - the better the component. I will immedately patent this idea as soon as I finish this bottle of Oban! Damn - my system has sounded good all weekend!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arco Posted April 25, 2004 Share Posted April 25, 2004 Gee Max! I'm also using Highland Park (Orkney Islands single malt) for my critical evaluations and it works each and every time... How much for a set of these feet? I might need one or two sets for the new gear I'm about to finish building... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted April 25, 2004 Author Share Posted April 25, 2004 things are going from bad to worse this weekend. Now one of the tubes has blown - totally - the amp started screaming suddenly and by the time I got to the power switch it had nailed yet another fuse - it managed to break the glass on the thing this time - impressive. So, going through my assortment of tubes I can put together: 7 EL34's 6 JJ KT88's and 4 Sovtek 6550WE's In other words - not much for an amp that takes 4 tubes per side!! Unless I start mixing that is - 4 el34's on one side and 4, say, 6550 WE's on the other. I can balance the sound with the 2 volume controls - should work at a pinch - otherwise no music for a day... Aristidis, The feet were around 45 Euros. You dont have any EH EL34's kicking around do you?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arco Posted April 25, 2004 Share Posted April 25, 2004 Sorry Max...The only EL34's I have kicking around are a quartet of JJ's. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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