got my new amp

Old Bob

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May 27, 2016
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:hey:

so excited! got my new amp. triode TRX 88 from Mike Bovaird. Mike was superb! he NEVER tried to sell me something, and in fact, encouraged me to get a prima luna from someone else!
the thing weighs a ton, and has superior build quality. wow. amazing. tubes rule! thanks to all of you, especially Mike and Kev (BZR.) you guys were right about tubes. let's just say 50 watts is PLENTY OF POWER. very high quality sound. seems a bit "bright" to me. a bit too much treble? maybe it will break in?

I guess my main concern is the tubes. how will I know when to replace a tube? how will I know which one? I listen about one hour per day.
this is so very exciting!

the room is a mess, where would I get a SMALL rack for my CD player and amp?

thanks guys!

best regards,

Bob
 
Huge congratulations Bob. Now looks like a beautiful amp. Enjoy!
 
Congratulations Bob. I was always a solid state guy until I got the VTL 250 signature Triode monoblocks. While I had them I developed quite a love for what tubes can bring to the music. Let us know how your learning curve goes! I suspect you'll be having a bucket of fun and excitement!

Mack
 
thanks guys! I asked a LOT of questions, all over, before getting my first tube amp. it is amazing. I thought tubes were old fashioned, dinosaurs, out dated. NOT TRU!

I may say the build quality of that amp seems amazing.

1. where would I get a SMALL rack for the amp and the CD Player? the room is a mess. bob
 
Congratulations Bob, that looks like a sweet amp. Based upon your usage you should have many years of musical enjoyment before any tube issues occur. There are several ways in which tubes fail. The most common is that they simply wear out. This will be most noticeable by having an imbalance between the two channels or a noticeable distortion in the frequency extremes. Catastrophic failure (going nuclear) can occur but is not prevalent. Failure of a component in the bias section of the amp could cause a tube to "red plate". This is noticeable by the whole tube glowing red. At which point the amp should be shut down immediately and taken in for service. A lot of the fear of tube amp failures is based upon the use of vintage equipment. While it was designed well for it's day, technology has come a long way. The newer circuits generally run the tubes more in their "comfort zone" therefore extending their life cycle. These are not the only way tubes fail but are among the more common.Many of my tube amps have thousands of hours on them and still perform well. For the time being just enjoy your new amp.
 
Bob,

Congrats! I enjoyed the videos you sent me last night.

SIDE NOTE: I kept telling Bob to get the PrimaLuna and he kept saying "I'm not buying anything unless its from you!" I really appreciate that Bob!

As jadedavid has indicated, you will have many years of enjoyment before you need to worry about replacing tubes. Some people keep a log of hours of listening so then know when they are getting close to 2000 hours, 5000 hours, 10,000 hours, etc. I know Steve here has over 10,000 hours on his KT88's (same tubes as in your amp) and they are still going strong. Steve is using upgraded tubes found here: http://www.thetubestore.com/Tubes/KT88-Tube-Types/Genalex-Gold-Lion-KT88

I think I still have a bunch of these new in a box I can send you to try, should you feel the urge to tube roll. Tube rolling is a fun part of owning tube amps. By trying different tubes, you get different sounds. There are NOS (New Old Stock) tubes, which can be from the 50's, 60's and 70's (or earlier) and new production tubes (like the ones above). As far as KT88's are concerned, there are plenty of good new new stock tubes and NOS tubes are scarce.

For new production tubes, the word on the street is that these are very good: http://www.goodcomponent.com/produc...z-replace-6550kt88factory-testmatch-1246.html

....but I have yet to try them myself.

The smaller tubes in your integrated amp are 2 x 12AX7's, 2 x 12AU7 and 2 x 12BH7. All will play a different role from input, preamp and phono. NOS tubes in these are the way to go and Andy Bowman of Vintage Tube Services is the guy to call. His website is: http://vintagetubeservices.com/ (thanks to Jack for the recommendation of Andy) Andy can find the good NOS tubes for you as far as the 12AX7, 12AU7, 12BH7's are concerned. Remember, you need matched PAIRS of each.

As far as a tube starting to go, jadedavid has outlined it above. The amp will lose power, you will hear a lot of white noise, crackle, static, pop, the glow of the tube will be less or none at all. But like we've said, you have MANY years of enjoyment before you need to worry about that.

The tubes you have are stock tubes and they need about 100-200 hours to break in. They will smooth out after. For now, use the tone control to drop the treble a notch.

As for racks, I use the Quadrasphire racks like these: http://quadraspire.com/ I'm not a fan of metal/steel shelves. Wood is best as it allows the energy from the electronics to dissipate without any ringing. You may want to call Chris at Timbernation (http://www.timbernation.com/Highendaudiorack_PopUp.cfm) His phone number is on the website. He can custom build you anything rack you want. Just remember, if you're putting the integrated on the bottom shelf (leave the top shelf for your turntable), than make sure you leave AT LEAST 4 inches of clearance above the top of the amp for the heat from the tubes to escape. Based on your amp specs, I would say 12-14 inches high is what you want. 19 x 19 is a good width/depth.

As for the stands for your speakers, I would talk to a B&W dealer, maybe even BestBuy because they sell them, to see if they can order you the matching stands for your speakers.

Hope this helps and congratulations on a fine amp!

TUBES RULE!!!!
 
As the output tubes age, you will find yourself turning up the bias knob in order to achieve the correct bias setting for your output tubes. It will gradually get to the point where you no longer can maintain proper bias as the cathodes becomes depleted. You should get a minimum of 2000 hours with your KT-88 tubes depending on how hard they are run in the circuit. 2000\365 = 5.4 years at the rate of listening 1 hour per day.
 
Bob, way to go. The tubes are pretty obvious as long as you are attentive to the sound & visual, also being as that amp is a good looker & the sound will certainly be pleasing I think you'll be good to go. The circuits will save you from anything really bad & the amp is self biasing so don't sweat the small stuff, you'll know. Once again the advice above from jadedavid & Mike cover things & I'm a fan of timber racks too. Damn that thang looks nice.
 
:hey:

so excited! got my new amp. triode TRX 88 from Mike Bovaird. Mike was superb! he NEVER tried to sell me something, and in fact, encouraged me to get a prima luna from someone else!

Heck, even I like Mike and I don't like ANYbody!
 
Heck, even I like Mike and I don't like ANYbody!

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:boing:
 
I thought that amp looked like it had a meter for setting bias. I'm not familiar with that amp so didn't realize if it is cathode biased.
 
I thought that amp looked like it had a meter for setting bias. I'm not familiar with that amp so didn't realize if it is cathode biased.

It does have a meter for setting bias.


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it does have a meter for bias. Mike will tell me how to set it after ???some weeks???
it has some bias knob with settings.

it could be my imagination, but I THINK the amp is sounding better every day. I could be wrong. it gets HOT. PLENTY of power. 13 by 13 foot room.

thanks guys, for all your help.
I never in a million years thought I would say it, but:

tubes rule
 
it does have a meter for bias. Mike will tell me how to set it after ???some weeks???
it has some bias knob with settings.

it could be my imagination, but I THINK the amp is sounding better every day. I could be wrong. it gets HOT. PLENTY of power. 13 by 13 foot room.

thanks guys, for all your help.
I never in a million years thought I would say it, but:

tubes rule

Yes. Give me a call and I will walk you through the bias procedure. It's really easy.
 
Bob - your new integrated has the new Triode autobias (they call it "self bias") technology. So, just sit back and enjoy you lucky dog!
 
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