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Man, I had surgery then recovery and then a business trip, all lasting about weeks and I have had not time to listen to music on my system. Today, I was able to get up early, water the new grass and bushes, sip coffee, read the internet news, workout, sit in the sauna and get ready for the listening session.
I noticed some tube rush in the right channel, I thought perhaps maybe warm up related, but kept playing music on and on. I got tired of the rush as it was dead quiet on the left and noticeably louder on the right. I swapped the preamp cables left and right to the monos to first see if it was the mono, wrong, the noise moved to the left channel. I knew it had to be a source issue or preamp at that point. I played a CD and the there was no noise. I have an Aesthetix IO Signature and swapped the phono in cables from the turntable first, noise stayed in the right channel.
So, the IO Sig is having a bad tube day, but why, after all of these months of no problems, in fact new tubes installed (read me review of Aesthetix IO tube rolling). Can sitting idle for a while cause some anomalies I am not aware of? I thought I would my issue with you folks, maybe you have experienced the same thing. I have some back up tubes and will swap those around for the control unit, but I do not have any for the power tubes. Can bad power tubes in the power supply make the IO have tube rush also?
Ciao,
Audioquest4life
Follow Ups:
Hello all,
I did some tube swapping and found the guilty tubes, they are actually the original set of tubes that came with the Aesthetix, these are the pair that are in V5 and V6, I wanted to swap those out in the winter and put some more hours on them, but I guess it was time. V1-V4 were already tube rolled and so was the lone 6922. The original IO tubes have about 4,000 hours on them. I used some of the Mullard 12AX7's I received from our famous forum vendor, Jim and absolute quiet,,,playing music and enjoying life again. Thanks for all of the tips. I need to order some spares though.
Ciao,
Audioquest4life
Try simply removing and reinstaling the tubes (no need to replace them as yet) in the right channel. Often you'll get a bit of a build up that this will clean up. Just the act of taking a tube out of the socket and putting it back in will often break up any contaminant film.
Some of my clients have had their Aesthetix units suddenly get microphonic or noisy. When they change the offending tube or tubes it improves for a time. The track record of Aesthetix is not particularly good as it relates to tubes staying quiet over time in my experience. I am not knocking this great gear, I have just had inordinant problems with these units. You might search the archives for other inmates that have had similar problems as I recall some buzz about this on the Asylum in the past.
I have had my Aesthetix IO for several years now, and have never had problems, so I do not associate it with an IO problem per se. The IO has functioned flawlessly, in the time I have had it, the Krell SACD died once, my Sunfire cinema receiver also died, both repaired succesfully, none of my tube stuff has quit on me yet, only the solid state stuff I mentionend I mentioned.
I just recently replaced some tubes (my first attempt at tube rolling) with positive audio results, so I think I might isolate it to the tubes I just replaced. That will be easy to find, but still will take about an hour to isolate. if the tube rush is from the power supply tubes, then I will be able to isolate it, but not replace them until I get a new batch.
I will keep you all posted. Thank you all for the replies.
Audioquest4life
sounds like phono tube. swap the noisy tube with another one. should fix it. sometimes just un plug and plug back in will fix.
Hi Audioquest,
Unlikely it is the power supply unless perhaps you are running 1 supply per channel. Do you have volume controls?.... rotate them briskly with the source off for 10-20x... If none of this applies to you: 1.) remove and insert existing tubes to clean contacts & listen then 2.) switch tubes left to right until you find the culprit. Also check your connections to source and pre. via interconnects
I have an IO sig with 2 supplies an volume controls.... It is remarkably quiet. It will take an hour or so but you will find the tube if that is the case.
Having things off for a while should not affect things. Only where things are left out without tubes in sockets and dust collects does this happen. Bad spot of luck or coincidence.
Good Luck,
AJ
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