A Cautionary Tale
Oct 13, 2011 15:42:11 GMT
Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2011 15:42:11 GMT
Newbies (and fellow electronic numpties like myself) take heed.
A few weeks ago I noticed a buzz from the left hand channel of my X-10D. I did the usual lazy man’s cure of simply turning it up till I couldn’t hear it anymore
, but eventually, especially during quiet passages it became too annoying to ignore.
I removed the X-10 from my system and swapped the valves. The buzz moved with the valve so I knew it was the valve and not the X-10. It was one of a pair of nice Russian valves I had bought from Mike maybe a year or so ago ( 6H23N ) and they sounded mighty nice when warmed through so I was disappointed that one had failed and I would now have to try to source some more. I stuck in some ECC88’s and put the Russian valves in the bin.
The next day I remembered something I had read in R.G. about valve pin oxidation and Mike playing a joke talking about cleaning the pins in a bath of vinegar. I quickly searched and found the thread concerned. (“Pin oxidisation” in the Valve thread).
I took the valves out of the bin, left them in a bath of jewellery cleaning solution overnight, and went at the pins with wet and dry the next day.
You know where this is heading don’t you?
Yes, you’re right!
Replaced my Russians and back to glorious sound.
So the motto surely is – don’t automatically assume the valve is damaged internally, it could be something simple like the pins needing cleaned.
Every day's a school day.
A few weeks ago I noticed a buzz from the left hand channel of my X-10D. I did the usual lazy man’s cure of simply turning it up till I couldn’t hear it anymore
, but eventually, especially during quiet passages it became too annoying to ignore.I removed the X-10 from my system and swapped the valves. The buzz moved with the valve so I knew it was the valve and not the X-10. It was one of a pair of nice Russian valves I had bought from Mike maybe a year or so ago ( 6H23N ) and they sounded mighty nice when warmed through so I was disappointed that one had failed and I would now have to try to source some more. I stuck in some ECC88’s and put the Russian valves in the bin.
The next day I remembered something I had read in R.G. about valve pin oxidation and Mike playing a joke talking about cleaning the pins in a bath of vinegar. I quickly searched and found the thread concerned. (“Pin oxidisation” in the Valve thread).
I took the valves out of the bin, left them in a bath of jewellery cleaning solution overnight, and went at the pins with wet and dry the next day.
You know where this is heading don’t you?
Yes, you’re right!
Replaced my Russians and back to glorious sound.
So the motto surely is – don’t automatically assume the valve is damaged internally, it could be something simple like the pins needing cleaned.
Every day's a school day.