Hello,
A newbie to the forum and to tube amplification, but from the sound of it, I'm going to stick to my Einstein for a while
I had a sad moment with my quite new amp just a few weeks back as it just made a loud 'pop' sound when I turned the standby switch to run...
After some testing, the unthinkable had happened, the number 2 winged C tube had actually shorted. Or so I think since after I replaced the fuses, removed the back panel and checked inside, while the amp was warming up, the tube in question didn't warm up like the others and only the top and bottom wires of the filament were glowing, I guess even tested and matched tubes get quirks while theyre still in the beginning of their lifespan. After removing the tube retainers I noticed a crack in the glass just where the spring touches the tube, I've since removed the retainers and I think I'll just check if the tubes are in or not myself from now on.
And then to my question. I was planning on buying a set of EL34's and mixing them with 2 KT88's would this in your opinion give me the best of both worlds or just a crappy sound? I mean, I love the grunt in the 4x6550's but I'm thinking on adding a tiny bit of treble and high mid responce and clarity to the amp. Also are sovteks total c*** or are they useable?
And my second question would be, how are the tubes paired, are inner tubes literally the two tubes in the middle or how is the Einstein wired?
As in when looking from the back side, are 1 and 4 the outer pair and 2, 3 the inner or?
Also, I'm using the amp at home, so I don't quite need all the bite and punch of the 100W so can I use it as 50W with just 2 tubes for the couple of weeks it takes to get the new tubes. or will it break the amp/tubes?
Thanks for any advice and Rock on!
Regards,
Kristjan
P.S. Sorry that I didn't notice this nice forum before mailing you straight Peter, thanks for the blazingly fast and accurate reply though