Hi all,
I've been the happy listener to a Tubelab SSE that I built some 3 odd years ago. Just a few days ago I turned it on and now the volume output is drastically lower. I used to be able to listen to things at 50% volume but know I have to turn the knob up to almost max to get it back to where it was. I've replaced all of the tubes already and it hasn't solved the issue. Does anyone have any troubleshooting tips that I can use to identify the source of this problem?
I'm not an expert at electronics and was only able to build the SSE because the instructions were clear. I do have a multimeter and a general knowledge of electrical safety though.
I've been the happy listener to a Tubelab SSE that I built some 3 odd years ago. Just a few days ago I turned it on and now the volume output is drastically lower. I used to be able to listen to things at 50% volume but know I have to turn the knob up to almost max to get it back to where it was. I've replaced all of the tubes already and it hasn't solved the issue. Does anyone have any troubleshooting tips that I can use to identify the source of this problem?
I'm not an expert at electronics and was only able to build the SSE because the instructions were clear. I do have a multimeter and a general knowledge of electrical safety though.
Not sure how the image function works on this board, but here's an imgur link of my board. It's horribly messy, sorry.
Imgur: The magic of the Internet
Not sure I'm measuring correctly, but I measured 10V across both the output transformers. Not sure how to measure the power transformer correctly because I'm not seeing the hundreds of volts that I should be expecting.
I'm using the Edcor GXSE15-8-5K's and the XPWR033-120 if that helps any.
No R1 in my setup since I have a power supply choke hooked up.
Also one possible thing I noticed. This may all just be a volume knob issue since another user of the amp may have pulled it off and put it back at the wrong level... But even if this is the case and there's no issue with the amp I want to learn some basic troublshooting for this thing to make sure everything's working.
Imgur: The magic of the Internet
Not sure I'm measuring correctly, but I measured 10V across both the output transformers. Not sure how to measure the power transformer correctly because I'm not seeing the hundreds of volts that I should be expecting.
I'm using the Edcor GXSE15-8-5K's and the XPWR033-120 if that helps any.
No R1 in my setup since I have a power supply choke hooked up.
Also one possible thing I noticed. This may all just be a volume knob issue since another user of the amp may have pulled it off and put it back at the wrong level... But even if this is the case and there's no issue with the amp I want to learn some basic troublshooting for this thing to make sure everything's working.
Here are a few different angles of the back. As far as I can tell, everything looks attached and okay. Not sure what a blown capacitor/resistor/FET/etc. would look like, but I think it would look obvious if there were any.
Attachments
a lot of the messy joints are actually because I was using the solid flux that came with my soldering iron when I bought it. I guess it's resolidified and blackened over time. Scraped it off with no issue.
I put everything back together with my volume knob in the correct position this time and I think it sounds about as loud as it used to. I might just be paranoid that something's still wrong but it doesn't sound quite the same as it used to. Maybe it's just the new tubes that need breaking in...
I put everything back together with my volume knob in the correct position this time and I think it sounds about as loud as it used to. I might just be paranoid that something's still wrong but it doesn't sound quite the same as it used to. Maybe it's just the new tubes that need breaking in...