Who sells stereo tubes in town?

[msommers]

My tube amp is acting up and I'm hoping replacing the tubes will solve the problem and I don't have to get it taken into the shop again.

For anyone who may be wondering or in the know:

1) Amp turns on fine, nothing blows immediately
2) I've checked all the tubes and nothing is rolling around when I spin them horizontally
3) The red lights on the amp indicating the tubes are biased correctly all turn on but just before the amp turns itself back into standby mode, some of the lights will turn off completely
4) When the amp is fully on from cold, it takes a couple minutes before it turns itself off. Otherwise it plays as per usual and then bam.

Here's hoping it's just the tubes, really don't feel like spending $120 bucks to have someone look over it again. The first time it happened it smelled like a lot of burning electronics :(. Since then, it doesn't smell but continues to have the same symptoms as before.

[msommers]

Well I ended up ordering online as I couldn't find anyone that sells tubes that are affordable. Grant Fidelity sells them up in Airdrie if you email or call them to setup an appointment. Unfortunately for a quad matched set of Psvane KT88s, I was looking at nearly $500 :eek: Absolute Sound also sells tubes but last time I was there he mentioned they only sell high-end tubes that have been cryo'd so I didn't even bother ask what they had...plus not open Sunday and Monday.

So I got some Gold Lion KT88s from thetubestore.com and we'll see how it goes...

Or I just get rid of this Jolida and maybe tryout one of the GF 845 or W-30.. :banghead: :rofl:

http://shop.grantfidelity.com/Grant-Fidelity-W-30-Integrated-All-in-one-Tube-Amp-w-Phono.html

http://shop.grantfidelity.com/Shuguang-Classic-S845MK-Tube-Power-Amplifier-pair.html

[r3ccOs]

Originally posted by msommers
Well I ended up ordering online as I couldn't find anyone that sells tubes that are affordable. Grant Fidelity sells them up in Airdrie if you email or call them to setup an appointment. Unfortunately for a quad matched set of Psvane KT88s, I was looking at nearly $500 :eek: Absolute Sound also sells tubes but last time I was there he mentioned they only sell high-end tubes that have been cryo'd so I didn't even bother ask what they had...plus not open Sunday and Monday.

So I got some Gold Lion KT88s from thetubestore.com and we'll see how it goes...

Or I just get rid of this Jolida and maybe tryout one of the GF 845 or W-30.. :banghead: :rofl:

http://shop.grantfidelity.com/Grant-Fidelity-W-30-Integrated-All-in-one-Tube-Amp-w-Phono.html

http://shop.grantfidelity.com/Shuguang-Classic-S845MK-Tube-Power-Amplifier-pair.html

the good and the bad about some products from Primaluna and Jolida are the self-control/auto-bias/protection circuits that can "possibly" break

I've had a few tube amps, and yes I'd start with the tubes... I myself had a pair of kt-88's burn out and they blew out the 6amp fuse as well...

I love the "tone" of my tube amp, but at the same time I am missing the visceral and spacial feel "more power" headroom has to offer...

I just heard a set of Energy Veritas's via a Bryston setup... and I'm thinking about leaving tubes all together now

but I do have to admit, listening to some jazzy Nora, Nichole Atkins, etc.. and I'm in love with how tubes make female vocals so real


as for tubes.. the best value for dollar, and the most neutral and yet powerful are the shuguan kt-88's....
probably the cheapest you can find

always start with the pre-amp tubes (the pvane's are solid)
then driver/rectifiers (I use 6sn7 Sylvania NOS chrome domes)
then the output's... but I tell you those kt-88's are as vanilla as they come and mate with anything

[wtf im nameless]

Originally posted by r3ccOs


the good and the bad about some products from Primaluna and Jolida are the self-control/auto-bias/protection circuits that can "possibly" break

I've had a few tube amps, and yes I'd start with the tubes... I myself had a pair of kt-88's burn out and they blew out the 6amp fuse as well...

I love the "tone" of my tube amp, but at the same time I am missing the visceral and spacial feel "more power" headroom has to offer...

I just heard a set of Energy Veritas's via a Bryston setup... and I'm thinking about leaving tubes all together now

but I do have to admit, listening to some jazzy Nora, Nichole Atkins, etc.. and I'm in love with how tubes make female vocals so real


as for tubes.. the best value for dollar, and the most neutral and yet powerful are the shuguan kt-88's....
probably the cheapest you can find

always start with the pre-amp tubes (the pvane's are solid)
then driver/rectifiers (I use 6sn7 Sylvania NOS chrome domes)
then the output's... but I tell you those kt-88's are as vanilla as they come and mate with anything

I absolutely love the sound of Bryston amps, that's what I'm going to go with for my next theatre build.

[msommers]

Originally posted by r3ccOs


the good and the bad about some products from Primaluna and Jolida are the self-control/auto-bias/protection circuits that can "possibly" break

I've had a few tube amps, and yes I'd start with the tubes... I myself had a pair of kt-88's burn out and they blew out the 6amp fuse as well...

I love the "tone" of my tube amp, but at the same time I am missing the visceral and spacial feel "more power" headroom has to offer...

I just heard a set of Energy Veritas's via a Bryston setup... and I'm thinking about leaving tubes all together now

but I do have to admit, listening to some jazzy Nora, Nichole Atkins, etc.. and I'm in love with how tubes make female vocals so real


as for tubes.. the best value for dollar, and the most neutral and yet powerful are the shuguan kt-88's....
probably the cheapest you can find

always start with the pre-amp tubes (the pvane's are solid)
then driver/rectifiers (I use 6sn7 Sylvania NOS chrome domes)
then the output's... but I tell you those kt-88's are as vanilla as they come and mate with anything

I was also looking at pairs of Psvanes in the 12AX7 and 12AT7 to replace that ones that are stock. I'm hoping with these KT88s that I can at least get it working and then start rolling in new stuff when it'll actually make a big difference. The Studio 100 V3's I have now are just pretty OK and where I'd rather spend more upgrading dollars.

Per pair, I think those two mentioned are ~$100 shipped.

Which did you hear Bryston? And what kind of price range we talking here?


Rachel from GF got back to me about half hour after I had placed my order to tell me they also sell another KT88...I found that site be terrible to find stuff, or I'm still drunk from yesterday.

http://psvanetube.com/wordpress/store/products/kt88-quad/


Originally posted by wtf im nameless


I absolutely love the sound of Bryston amps, that's what I'm going to go with for my next theatre build.

Do you carry Bryston stuff by chance?

[wtf im nameless]

Originally posted by msommers

Do you carry Bryston stuff by chance?

Not yet but I will be soon. A lot of these upper end brands are picky on who they'll open up as a dealer. Thankfully I've been in this industry for long enough to know almost all the reps which makes it a lot easier.

Once everyone is back to work in early Jan I'll give the rep a call and get the ball rolling, I'll PM you once it's all set up.

Such nice stuff, between the way it sounds, the build quality, the 20 year warranty, etc... By far my personal favourite amplifier in the world.

[r3ccOs]

Originally posted by wtf im nameless


Not yet but I will be soon. A lot of these upper end brands are picky on who they'll open up as a dealer. Thankfully I've been in this industry for long enough to know almost all the reps which makes it a lot easier.

Once everyone is back to work in early Jan I'll give the rep a call and get the ball rolling, I'll PM you once it's all set up.

Such nice stuff, between the way it sounds, the build quality, the 20 year warranty, etc... By far my personal favourite amplifier in the world.

where is your shop btw?

I used to help out my buddy at Creative Audio in Winnipeg years ago, for the scrapnecks

but "stereo" shops alone are hard business... and as the years pass, only a couple shops left in town here :(

North America in general don't appreciate the arts lets alot subsequently the hardware required to play the software they should appreciate

its all about multi-channel recievers, black friday/boxing day blow out HT in a box with a big enough subwoofer and screen to make you tone deaf and blind

all my buddy's "prize" home theater setup's usually have their subwoofers placed, phased and x-overed wrong 100% of the time

wow listen to my BAZE... it is amazing at this huge 70hz hump cause my room acoustics and placement is awful, but everything else above and below drops off by 20db

anyways..
as per bryston, their latest setup of 4bsst are amazing... but a good preamp is a must, as they will error on the side of bright on a poorly mated combo

I'm a big fan of Musical Fidelity equipment, but there hasn't been a distributor in Canada for years :(

[AndyL]

If your kt88s don't resolve it, let me know... I I've got access to a tube tester, and we can figure it out...

I picked up an old heathkit amp a while back, I wonder if I can hack it to handle surround sound :) it was just too cool of a unit to pass up...

[r3ccOs]

Originally posted by AndyL
If your kt88s don't resolve it, let me know... I I've got access to a tube tester, and we can figure it out...

I picked up an old heathkit amp a while back, I wonder if I can hack it to handle surround sound :) it was just too cool of a unit to pass up...

definitely fun!

honestly schematics are everywhere, and if you're building either an SET or a pentode based Triode amp... you can build something yourself pretty easily...

p2p sodering with decent componants... solen caps etc.. you can have yourself a very good sounding tube amp

IMO tube amps are the most beautiful sounding amps, just multi-range large excurting non-paper type woofers demand more than those things put out

[AndyL]

I'm no audiophile by any means, but I just liked the stainless face and big industrial look of the heathkit...

That said, my daily use radio is actually a 1947 westinghouse console. We have 15 odd radios in the house, and but it just works - flawlessly... Reception can't be beat.

I'll have to sit down and figure out tubes - replacing caps in the westinghouse was easy, and but I learned electronics in the transistor era, nobody showed us a tube - except for pictures in books...

[msommers]

Thanks Andy, I'll let you know! I need to learn how to do simple things like biasing but it sounds super easy, just need to find the values (without access to a manual unfortunately). For this 502 that I have, I've heard 50mV is a good number but also have heard it's 500mV + 50mV for biasing.

I'm tempted to keep this amp as a "practice" one as when I was searching the forums, the Jolidas are fairly rugged if the tubes, caps and solders are upgraded/taken care of and could be fun to experiment doing it myself. That said, I asked someone about this and they said some of these voltages can be in the 450v range which gets kind of dicey if you don't know what you're doing!

Grant Fidelity no longer does home auditions which is unfortunate, just final sales from the sales room :(

As for SS amps, I've heard great things about Lavardin, Pass Labs, Krell, Bel Canto, Parasound Halo series, Clayton, Electrocompaniet, Sim Audio...many more. Unfortunately all of these brands are serious coin.

[wtf im nameless]

Originally posted by r3ccOs


where is your shop btw?



I'm still working from home, I'll have a small retail location in the Deep South east by fall of 2013. I mainly specialize in upper end theatre and automation but some of the brands I carry (or will be carrying soon) like Monitor Audio and Bryston have some amazing hifi products too.

[msommers]

Anyone needing any tubes? I'm wanting to order a single tube from The Tube Store but shipping remains the same if I buy 1 or 4.

[MrSector9]

When do you plan on ordering, mind you I am not a hifi guy but I will order a couple tubes for my guitar amp and mic preamp.

[msommers]

I can order anytime. Id probably mail it to you and pick them up as I'll probably be out of town. Can send in an order asap, might even get here before Jan 3 if expedited for $13.