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Trouble Shooting Torii Jr. (Read 5203 times)
Steve Deckert
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Trouble Shooting Torii Jr.
06/05/17 at 18:43:55
 
I'm writing this today in hopes of saving those who might read it the cost of shipping back and forth to and from Decware.

IF you are having issues with tubes, i.e.., failures with input tubes, output tubes, rectifier tubes or any other tubes, you should know that your DECWARE amplifier is not causing the tubes to pre-maturely fail. Decware amplifiers are easy on tubes with voltages below 400V and current draws that are easy on the tubes. This is true of all Decware amplifiers. Let me repeat, the amplifier can not cause the tubes to prematurely fail, act up, go bad, become noisy or any other issue. When ANY of these things happen it is the tubes themselves.  

This is a fairly familiar problem when people start rolling tubes, because it's hard to believe when you buy brand new tubes from a somewhere that they could possibly be bad. Equally hard to accept is when you pay big money for N.O.S. tubes, or Chinese Exotic Tubes yet it happens all the time.

I just spent $800 on a quad of TJ-Full Music KT88's, the best in the world, and in less than 30 hours two of the tubes drifted out of spec so far I could no longer use them.

This is not 1950 anymore and tubes are no longer made in America and tube testers no longer reside at the drugstores.  

In my experience it is VERY common for BRAND NEW TUBES to fail, unless they came from Decware.  The difference is that I personally grade our tubes, test them, and run them in on the amplifier for many hours to be sure they deliver the expected performance.  To achieve this, I have to throw apron 20% of the tubes away.

I through them away in most cases because when I send them back for credit, the sellers just resell them to someone else a little less picky.  I have enough amplifiers out there that the odds are rather high that those defective tubes will be sold to one of my own customers.

My Advise is to call me if you have tube issues.  I will repeat everything you just read above and have you send the tubes to us for testing rather than send your amplifier here and risk shipping damage.

Thanks,

Steve


Oh, to answer a popular question: "Is there any tubes we should avoid if we don't want tube issues?"

Yes, most Chinese power tubes regardless of price or grade and any tubes made by JJ Electronics are to be avoided IF you don't want tube issues as a high percentage develop issues.


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Lon
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Re: Trouble Shooting Torii Jr.
Reply #1 - 06/05/17 at 19:29:42
 
Great points Steve.

You're so right about JJ tubes. I got lucky and had two matched cryo'd quads of JJ 6CA7s have long, full, excellent lives. . .and then I ran into the defective ones that others were talking about, two quads that only gave me a few months of service. That is a shame as I think these are the very best power tubes I've used in the Torii Mk III in many ways. I'd love to try their KT66 but not with this sort of quality/performance problem very possible.

It's a pain in the ass to have these issues facing us and yet. . . it's worth it. . . tubes are such great devices.
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Steve Deckert
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If the 1st watt
sucks why continue?

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Re: Trouble Shooting Torii Jr.
Reply #2 - 06/05/17 at 20:04:44
 
Agreed, it is well worth it, but for beginner's important to understand. You would be surprised how many customers we have had over the years who sent amps in for repair with the original now nearly spent tubes, some over 10 years old. I just tells me that the mindset is that of solid state, where you get the amp with whatever it comes with to make sound and only replace parts if they break. Tubes are of course not like that : )

Steve

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atacgene
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Re: Trouble Shooting Torii Jr.
Reply #3 - 12/04/17 at 05:27:46
 
May I add that from my experience my Torri Jr really does not like the new Chinese 274B tubes. At least 6-7 tubes have died within 6 months, including 2 from sent from Decware. Steve did tell me that this can happen as he has explained very well above. Luckily there are many reasonably priced NOS American made 5U4GB around that still works very well. So far I have no issue with them but if I do, they cost less in general, at least for now. ( Steve said the new Chinese 274B = 5U4GB). The NOS sounds much smoother, while the Chinese 274B sounds a bit fatty/less refined but then I have not gotten the chance to burn them in before they all died!
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