• 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.

Cracking sound through speakers.

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Hi guy's,

I'm a newbie to valve amps and i've just partnered my class-d power amp with a valve pre using 2x ECC82 and 1x ECC83 double triode valves....it's a commercial one not built by me.

Although it does sound wonderful and i love it already it seems to be suffering from a little problem, at random intervals i get a loud cracking noise through the speakers...seems like it's picking up mains spikes but not sure...it doesn't affect the sound before or after the noise...any one help me...do i need a filter?...it's scaring the wife.
I wasn't getting the problem with my old transistor pre-amp.

Another question i have is, it came with valve marked Ei are these any good and could i change them for the same tubes from different manufacturers, which are best?
Thanks for the help in advance.
Tim.
 
Ignoring the class D amp for the time being...

Did you try moving the tubes in their sockets? Sometimes bad contacts can cause noise. Do you have other tubes of the same type on hand? You might have a bad one.

I've had a few 6GH8As which generally worked fine but had amazingly loud noise, from hissing to crackling of the same description. The cure? Use a different tube...

Tim
 
Thanks Tim for that reply...i haven't got any other tubes at the moment but i'll get some....the fault doesn't appear to be channel related, seems to happen across both channels but i'll swap them around and see if reseating them helps.
Can anybody recommend any good makes?
Tim.
 
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Hi Tim,
Since you are in the UK, try any decent brand that isn't terribly expensive. I have not had good luck with Chinese tubes.

Sorry, I should have noticed your location when I posted earlier. If you can get Electroharmonix there, then great.
-Chris
 
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