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Message started by deucekazoo on 05/03/11 at 20:32:06

Title: Tube Tester
Post by deucekazoo on 05/03/11 at 20:32:06

Hey guys, what is a good tube tester to get. I would like to be able to check my own tubes to see what kind of life they have left. I was looking at the B&K 707. Is that a good one? Any other ones to look at? Thanks for the help.

John

Title: Re: Tube Tester
Post by Mark Williams on 05/04/11 at 15:08:04

Hello:

I'm not expert on this. I was given a Sencore TC-109 (thank you brother-in-law!) and I like it very much. One thing the Sencors do vs. others is test for shorts. If you have a short in a tube, just forget it! Toss it and move on!

Just make certain you get the manual with any tester you are buying.

And of course, you cannot totally trust a tube tester. I've had tubes that test fine, but don't play well.

And the opposite....I must have an error or something in my manual because I recently tested some 6EU7's that sure enough, tested BAD, but play wonderfully!

Go figure!

My 2 cents worth,
Good luck!
Mark

Title: Re: Tube Tester
Post by Doorman on 05/04/11 at 15:17:22

http://www.transcendentsound.com
look under "products"
don

Title: Re: Tube Tester
Post by deucekazoo on 05/05/11 at 13:19:10

Doorman,
That is a sweet looking unit. Probably more than I need and just a little too pricey for me right now. But its nice to know something like that exists.

Mark,
I know what you are saying. The reason a tube tester came to mind is that I added some tweeters to my back loaded horns. So not to worry about volume pots to match the tweeter to the driver I just biamped my setup. I have two S84CSs that I was running in mono. So now one runs the tweeters and the other the BLHs. Well to me it seamed that the right speaker was not as loud as the left. So that started me thinking if the tubes were going bad. I did not have this problem when they were in mono. So it would just be nice to see how much life they have left in them.

Title: Re: Tube Tester
Post by Pale Rider on 05/06/11 at 14:20:09

I looked very hard at the Tube Analyzer over at Transcendent Sound. Bruce is another passionate tube guy. I bought his balanced power supply kit. Well done package, which I intend to finish firing up this weekend. But in the end, I opted for a used vintage tube tester from Brent Jessee at Audio Tubes.