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Flickering tubes on my AR M100! Help!

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I don't know why, but lately the output tubes (6550 Sylvania's) are flickering in tandem...

I don't fully understand the full circuit design, but I'll describe the symptom first, then the design topology.

There are 2 pairs of 6550's for my AR M100 (mono amp) work in a balanced-output fashion. Lately, the pairs are flickering (pulsating bluish light) one pair after another - often occurs during the initial cycle-on and sometimes well after continuous playback - accompanying slight hum and a couple of loud thumps to the loudspeaker. Onetime, the playback was interrupted by loud hum and silence intermittently and when I look at the tubes, one pair's entire metal structures were glowing red!!

The design, based on what I can understand from the schematics: Amplication - Signal to Input amp/Phase Inverter to Cross Coupler to Driver Amp to Output Tubes. (Well, I may be missing something in between.)

The Power section - AC to Rectifier to Cap to 630V to Clamp Circuits (+433V for the small signal tubes described above and +330V for the Screen) The rest of the circuitry looks like feedback to me.

Anybody has a clue as to what is happening to my amps???

This only happens to one mono amp. I tried swapping tubes between the 2 mono's. The same thing happens.

Thanks for any advice you can give me!




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Topic - Flickering tubes on my AR M100! Help! - DC 18:29:20 12/21/00 (9)


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