Dear Decware family,  

It has been a while, and I hope everyone is doing well!

We just arrived back to the states after a 3 year adventure in Australia.  Over the past few years, my listening was limited to headphones, iMac speakers, and small bluetooth speakers, so you could imagine the excitement when I got my Decware system out of long term storage.  For reference, the amp was stored in the military case in a climate controlled warehouse for the past 3 years.

Side note:  Out of all of our boxes in storage, the only box missing from the shipment was the box labeled Decware amp, Serial # 002.  I remember the team that packed us up being suspicious of the serial number.  “That’s not a real serial number” one guy said.  I think my comment was something like, “the amp was hand built by artisans in Illinois”.  They shrugged and moved on.

Fast forward 3 years and I’m saying to myself, “I can’t f$ckin believe this…out of all the boxes”  I remember sounding deflated when I spoke to the moving agent and she told us we would need to file a claim.  So I called Decware, got my receipt sent over (thanks Sarah) and we filed an insurance claim.  I fell asleep thinking, it has already been 3 years, what’s another year (congrats to Decware on the booming business, well deserved as we all know).  

To our surprise, we received an e-mail later that night that they located the box on one of the moving trucks.  Fist into the air!  A few days later, the amp was delivered and I could finish hooking everything up.  We are in CT now, so the amp was cold, very cold, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t get goosebumps on the first track I listened to.  $hit grin.  This is how music is supposed to sound.  

Alright, so the honeymoon is over and I realize what a hot acoustical mess of a room I’m dealing with.  I also have a bit of a problem with one of my tube sockets that I’m hoping the family can give me some advice on.  ZMA left power tube socket (A10).  

The amp plays fine, but if I wiggle any power tube in that socket I get static/pops in the left speaker, and if I push the tube a bit further, the sound completely cuts out and the bias meter for that tube drops to zero.  

Thoughts?  Should I clean out the tube socket?  I looked and it doesn’t appear to be dirty.  That said, what is the best way to clean a tube socket?  Brush only?  Deoxit Red?  

I’m also not looking to get blasted by 500V from those Red caps.  Going from summer in Australia to winter in CT was shock enough.  

Any advice would be much appreciated!  Let the musical journey continue…

Cheers,
Dave

Thanks Archie.  Australia is a beautiful country.  Too bad we spent over 250 days in lockdown in Melbourne.  That said, we had the best experience possible given the circumstances.

What is the best way to clean the amp?  I have never done it before.  Do you use contact cleaner (Caig DeOxit?, other?) or just brushes?  What's the protocol for opening her up and not getting a 500V shock.  

BTW...I have swapped all my tubes around and it's definitely an issue with that socket.  

I'm hoping it's something I can resolve myself as a trip back to the mothership will likely result in my wallet being drained by 25th anniversary add ons  :D

I hope someone can help you as I haven't myself attempted to clean any tube sockets. I've had a few go bad. I just had three replaced by Steve in my Taboo Mk IV with the Mods. And. . .it's not a warranty repair, expect about 100 per socket and shipping. So word to the wise: don't play around with tube rolling as much as I have without using those darned socket savers!

I assume a socket saver is an adapter that fits into the socket and the tube fits into it.  That way changing tubes only works the socket saver and not the amp.

If the socket is just dirty then I'd think inserting and removing the tube would clean it up by friction.  

Lon, what went wrong with your sockets?  Did they just get loose?  I'm thinking Dave's issue must be more related to shipping forces or oxidation.

One way to check the socket connections would be to remove the amp base and prop up the edges of the plate so that the amp could be powered up and the wires to the bad socket could be wiggled to check for intermittent connection.

PS, don't touch anything other than the insulation!

Steve once suggested to me that if I had a sacrificial tube I could cut off all but one pin and use the tube to check each socket opening for snugness.  This is a good way to see if the problem is due to looseness in one or more of the sockets.  It's impossible to tell with a fully pinned tube.

A post by Jim McShane "Tube Problems...........":
https://www.audioasylum.com/audio/tubes/messages/25/253369.html

Quote:


LOL.  I'm one of those fools who rushes in.  
A natural born button pusher and a student of the school of hard knocks!