Replace tube TLAudio Fatman

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uc.t

Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
5
Location
Sweden
I'm thinking of replacing the tube in my fat1. Is it just to take the old one out and put in a new, or is there some calibration / adjustment of the BIAS also to be done?

Here's what the tube is for:
"A solid state, electronically balanced input amplifier is used to achieve state of the art performance with very low
noise, low distortion and wide bandwidth. An ECC83/12AX7A triode valve stage (run from a stabilised 100v DC supply) is used as a second stage voltage amplifier, to obtain the classic valve sound and gradual overdrive characteristics."

The TLAudio support doesn't respond to my e-mail.
 
That unit is filled with chips with a slap-on decoration tube running at very low voltage. The tube will last 10-20 years. The person who wrote the manual clearly made a mistake.

It's not a guitar amp where tubes are often running past their maximum specs, or slowly accumulate damage due to physical movement.
 
Kingston said:
That unit is filled with chips with a slap-on decoration tube running at very low voltage. The tube will last 10-20 years. The person who wrote the manual clearly made a mistake.

It's not a guitar amp where tubes are often running past their maximum specs, or slowly accumulate damage due to physical movement.

OK, maby it's a bit early then. But when will I know when the tube is worne out? Or will it break (leaving no sound?) befor I'll have to replace it? And if I do decide to put in a new one, will it need adjustment?
 
uc.t said:
OK, maby it's a bit early then. But when will I know when the tube is worne out? Or will it break (leaving no sound?) befor I'll have to replace it? And if I do decide to put in a new one, will it need adjustment?

In this particular piece of gear, you might not actually ever hear when it starts to lose its edge. The tube has negligible impact on sound, and is just there to add "fart". You probably won't ever hear when the character of this tube fart starts to change. Like I said, it's a decoration tube.

But if you're paranoid about it, new tube needs no adjustments.
 
Agreed - these  * "low voltage running into a tube" designs will not need replacement. You will notice no huge sound changes by putting one brand new spanky tube in there.





* the avante and sophisticated amongst us love terms like "starved plate" which often only result in more confusion and paranoia to owners of gear. - Food for thought:)
 
It's more than 6 years old. The owners manual recommend replacement every 3 years. ???

An 12AX7 tube in that circuit will last many many years.
If you want to test the tube , ask for help from someone that has a tube tester, but you don't need to replace it every 3 years, maybe you don't even need to replace it in 15 years...
 
Sadly Tim at Sonicsystems is no longer with us. As I know several Tims, although I am pretty sure it was he. Of course I would like to be corrected. I met up with A Tim at Don Larkings about 6 years ago and he was representing TLAudio gear.
Matt S
The valve, as mentioned previously is only fed around 100 Volts and should therefore last many years unless you break it!
 

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