Xiang Sheng help...?

[Dusty Chalk]

Or, as they call it on Head-Fi, the Xiansheng.

Alright, I found the tube compliment as being 1 6N3, 2x 6922, 1 6Z4 and 1 6N1. Meh, the only ones of those that I have are the 6922's...and not even that many of those...

My boss just bought one (under my recommendation, so there's a little bit of pressure to do well, here). It's distorting. My first guess would be one of the tubes, but he does have a whole new system (using the MF A308 as transport, to long digital cable to cheap DAC to short ICs to Xiang Sheng to Sony MDR-7506/-V6's [i forget which, but it's actually a nice match]), so there's a possibility that it's something else, but I figure: check the tubes first. Any suggestions on the primarily most likely culprit? I guess I need to break out my tube tester, figure out how it works, and bring it to work, and just go through them all.

Hirsch? I know it's been a while, but if you've got anything to add, I'd be grateful. You are, after all, the tube Yoda.

Or would you prefer 'Tube Spock'?

And no, don't suggest new power cords. That would be the last thing I'd be looking at.

[tkam]

Sounds like a bad tube to me. Might also be worth reseating the tubes if you haven't tried that yet.

[n_maher]

I'd throw a different, known good source on it first and see if that helps. Might as well remove as much from the chain as possible. I'd also make sure all of the tubes are properly seated and that the pins are clean.

[hirsch]

At the risk of being redundant, first check the tubes. Or else try a different set of tubes. If they work, one of the originals was bad by elimination. If that doesn't work, bring it by, and I'll stare at it as though I know what I'm doing.

[Dusty Chalk]

I don't have a different set of tubes for anything but the 6DJ8's.

I'll ask him if I can borrow it to try to fix it. Not sure he'll let it go, though. He may ask me to do whatever right there in front of him. I mean, he only just got the thing, I'd be hesitant to let it out of my sight, too.

I'll take my tube tester to work and see if I can remember how it works.

[hirsch]

I don't have a different set of tubes for anything but the 6DJ8's.

I do. You'll need 5670's, IIRC. You'd have to rewire the tube socket to use a different rectifier, though.

[Dusty Chalk]

Okay, so I dropped one of the tubes (one of the 6N11's) before I had a chance to test it. Now, one half of that tube doesn't emit at all. Did I break something? Or would it still work if the other half was fine, and it was broken before (just not as well)? There were no shorts.

I think I owe him at least a pair of new production tubes, but he won't have any of it.