• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

Help! Did my power cable blow his tubes?

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M Gregg

M Gregg

Disabled Account
Joined 2010
Cassiel said:
Well I don't find this thread funny anymore. All this madness makes me sad. I'm not a fanatic of common sense but this is too much.
Click to expand...

I agree that it is possible to get variations base upon cable types and RFI rejection, however something is wrong with this thread. It seems to go on even when all sense and reason has been done and dusted.

Only my thoughts..even the electrical discussion is very vague..the main thing with all of this is SAFETY FIRST and REGULATIONS ...everything else is secondary.

Regards
M. Gregg
 
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jan.didden

jan.didden

AX tech editor
Joined 2002
linearaudio.net
Paid Member
Truth said:
Everyone who sells audiophile cables don't have a license, because it costs too much to get one. I heard that it would cost tens of thousands of dollars to get a cable UL or CE certified, and that's why the cable maker didn't do it, I still bought their cable.
Click to expand...

It is pretty simple to self-certify for CE marking. Look up the safety and other requirements for your product and document that you take every reasonable step to ensure you meet the requirements and you can slap the CE marking on your product.
That's also the reason you see far-east Teddy Bears with CE markings ;)

jan
 
jneutron

jneutron

Member
Joined 2004
kevinkr said:
Where in your American home do you have 240V? :D
A line cord is not capable of converting 120V to 240V last time I checked.. The OP posted a very clear picture of a standard NEMA 15A 120V plug, even swapping the hot and neutral is not going to cause a problem like this to occur. The reviewer is located here in the U.S.

There was clearly something that went wrong with the amplifier and the amplifier manufacturer if anyone should be on the hook here - and it is not necessarily the case that the user just isn't an incompetent boob reviewer/appliance operator with no clue as to what is going on under the hood, aka the typical audiophool..

I'd probably request the line cord back - but frankly the reviewer in question is never going to believe the OP that it was not his line cord, ignorance is like that, judge, jury and executioner all in one. I would simply state to the individual in question that there is no causal relationship between changing line cords and internal amplifier failures. Given the description of the failure and the ensuing supposed fireworks I'd suspect a bias supply failure..
Click to expand...

Hmmm. Your first question lit a bulb in my mind...(a dim one, but one nonetheless);)

Several questions to ask:

1. Does the reviewer have multiple breaker feeds to his setup from both legs of the house feed?
2. If so, are they all wired correctly or hot/neutral reversed?
3. Was the power cord possibly hot/neutral reversed?
4. Did the reviewer lift grounds anywhere to remove hum?
5. Does the equipment have y filters, or anything that connects neutral to chassis?

jn
 
T

Truth

Member
Joined 2012
DF96 said:
You would probably need to put a cooling system around the cable to increase its current capacity (water-cooled domestic cables, anyone?). Anything else will reduce current capacity, by trapping heat. I don't know about sound, but the smell of burning insulation might detract from listening pleasure. When the buyer's house burns down their insurance company might start asking awkward questions. I hope you have good answers ready.
Click to expand...
Ok, I just checked the thermal conductivity of the stuff I put around the cable. It's very good! The thermal conductivity is much higher than air, so it's better to have this stuff than not have it.
 
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20to20

Member
Joined 2010
jneutron said:
Hmmm. Your first question lit a bulb in my mind...(a dim one, but one nonetheless);)

Several questions to ask:

1. Does the reviewer have multiple breaker feeds to his setup from both legs of the house feed?
2. If so, are they all wired correctly or hot/neutral reversed?
3. Was the power cord possibly hot/neutral reversed?
4. Did the reviewer lift grounds anywhere to remove hum?
5. Does the equipment have y filters, or anything that connects neutral to chassis?

jn
Click to expand...

One more to add..

6. Was the reviewer ******* faced at the time of the "incident?" Because I have a deposed witness who says here..... "Those weren't KT88's, he had 6BQ5's in adapters."
 
D

DF96

R.I.P.
Joined 2007
myweb.tiscali.co.uk/g8hqp/
Truth said:
Ok, I just checked the thermal conductivity of the stuff I put around the cable. It's very good! The thermal conductivity is much higher than air, so it's better to have this stuff than not have it.
Click to expand...
I note the word "just".

Truth said:
The thermal conductivity is much higher than air, so it's better to have this stuff than not have it.
Click to expand...
That would depend on how well it thermally couples to air. As you are interposing a substance (whatever it is) it will, other things being equal, add some thermal resistance between the original cable and the ambient air. In order to provide a thermal improvement you would need to ensure that other things are not equal. This is how a heatsink works: it adds a bit of thermal resistance through itself, but its surface area is so much greater than the bare component (e.g. because of fins) that the net result is a reduction in thermal resistance to ambient.

Does your cable covering have fins, or a large surface area, together with a thermal conductivity which is on a par with a metal? Do you take steps to ensure good thermal coupling to the exterior of the cable (e.g. no air pockets)?
 
TheGimp

TheGimp

Member
Joined 2009
I am slowly going crazy, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Switch!
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I am slowly going crazy, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Switch!
Crazy going am I slowly, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Switch!
I am slowly going crazy, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Switch!
Crazy going am I slowly, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Switch!
I am slowly going crazy, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Switch!
Crazy going am I slowly, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Switch!
 
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