crappyjones123

nothing really has been resolved regarding the beta. nate, very kindly offered to take a look at the amp gratis. the buyer doesnt want to send the amp for another cross country voyage since that is what seemed to have caused the problem in the first place. he found some local people but im certain they would all charge for their time unlike nate. im going to try to get fedex to pay for the repairs and the back and forth shipping (nate just sent me an invoice for the beta22) instead of the whole cost of the insurace. i think they might be more open to do that. regards the extreme, man is it versatile. or perhaps its the tubes. had a little 30 minute listen this morning before i left for school with a different driver tube and the sound changed immensely. details were not as good and the sound was not so bright but the soundstage was HUGE! quick question, do the 2 power tubes in the back affect the sound much or is it the driver tube doing most of the work?

one of the 5998 tubes just made 2 fairly audible cracking noises. the same sound you would expect the tube to make if the glass cracked the amp had been turned off for roughly 10 minutes. do i turn it on tomorrow and see if the tube died? could that lead to an explosion blowing me and anyone in the house to shreds? should i pull out the tube first, inspect it for any visible cracks and then try to plug it in and use it? how fragile are vacuum tubes - when they are "hot" i guess/have been used for a few hours? could a sudden drop in temperature lead them to crack? sorry for the 20 questions in advance. if there is a sticky i should read or a link that answers all these question or most of them even, kindly pass it along. i kinda jumped into this without doing much reading which admittedly isnt the right way to go about things but im willing to learn.

ah yes i did, turned out it was hiding in the box with the 650s. dont know who put them there just borrowed my dads camera. following pictures came out much crisper than the previous ones. toobes are fun

so far ive been most impressed with the tiny tungsol tube im using with the 2c51 adapter and the ge 5998 tubes. the previous combo of sylvania 6sn7gt and bendix 6080 was sluggish and boring. bass seemed a little less tight and the instrument separation was not as apparent. the energy level of the current combo is a lot higher as well (buddy guy and joe satriani sound like the way they should). however in recordings of concerts, the crowd "noises" seem to be very muffled. with the previous combo, i could hear everyone in the crowd separately. its weird how different tubes sound so different...never woulda thought. im having as much fun as two monkeys in a barrel just playing around with different kinds of tubes. yes i guess these should go under an impressions thread but im too lazy to start one nor do i think i have opinions well formed enough to deserve a new thread. here are a few pictures though. really like the one with the lights turned off and the tubes glowing.

nate, i sent you the pm's that the gentleman sent me on headfi. i forwarded them on headfi to you. just called fedex. they said that they can have the amp picked up, "inspected" and then shipped back to me on their own. i wouldnt have to pay for this option. i dont know how the actual purchase price for the amp is going to be settled. so lets say fedex sends the amp back to me, the guy already paid me (well he paid laine and i dont want him going around doing any paypal nonsense with laine) so am i obligated to pay him back or what. i have a take home test due monday that i need to work on for now but this whole thing is retarded.

apparently the beta isnt working for the guy i sold it to. no sound in the right channel. fedex says that i have to have a receipt of purchase of the amp from a vendor (their policy doesnt cover diy junk) for them to process the claim. since the amp was built by nate (not a big name vendor) i cant produce a receipt. in the very likely event that fedex doesnt give me back the money i insured the amp for, the sp extreme will be back on sale after its very short 5 hour stay with me. this fucking blows.

well weekdays im on campus from 9am till 8pm. so my only listening gets done after 9pm until 12am. i dont think id want to leave them running the entire day just for the 3 hours of use at night. if reason or experience states otherwise, please let me know. thanks for all your responses.

is there a manual for new owners of tube amps anywhere nate? or a list of do's and dont's. wouldnt want to do something out of ignorance.

i wasnt tapping the tubes. i was tapping the case and i could hear the ringing sound. too scared to do anything to the tubes.

so i received this amp yesterday and i plugged it in last night in the following order. 1. put bendix 6080 tubes all the way in the back 2 sockets. 2. put the sylvania 6sn7 tube in the front. noticed that the metal base was slightly loose and could be moved a wee bit. 3. attached the necessary cables and then turned it on with the headphone plugged in. 4. listened to music. the gear loop is very simple and as follows. lenovo laptop (line out) - mini - rca cable - sp extreme - hd 650s. problem that only occurred last night if i even tap the amp lightly with my fingernail it sounds like it would if i were inside a tube and someone were tapping the glass. its kinda high pitched and something akin to the noise made when your ears are ringing in a game right after you get flashbanged (cant hear anything else but the loud ringing noise). this noise however is not loud, nor overbearing anything else. with no music it is very prominent though. is this just the hum associated with tube amps that other people were talking about? problem that occurred last night after 2 hours of listening to the amp (from the time i plugged it into the power) the left channel started making a LOT of noise. audible enough to drown out the entire music in the left channel. it sounded as if one were holding a plastic bag outside the window while driving. dont know how else to describe it but that i think is the most accurate description i can think of. sounds almost exactly like it. i turned off the amp and left it be for a few minutes. turned the amp on again and the same thing - lots of noise a few seconds after i turned on the amp. i turned off the amp and went to bed too scared to do anything else. just got up and tried another 6sn7 gt tube instead of the sylvania and no noise in the left channel so far. the amp did get exceptionally hot to the touch after 2 hours of use. i know that tube amps are supposed to run hot but i just wanted to make sure it couldnt have been the cause of the noise. listening to john lee hooker right now and everything sounds good. was it just a driver tube or could it be something with the amp. id rather not open it up and have a look inside unless i absolutely must. amp sounds marvelous otherwise. ps. i tried reading up on the topic last night but only found one thread regarding noise in the left channel in a darkvoice but the owner said it was intermittent. kept coming and going every few days or so. id rather have the amp be working in good condition considering it did cost a lot (to me).

this is just silliness.

happy bday sir. you were missed in tampa. hope you have a good one.

thanks for the help nate. i feel like an

if anyone finds a red mini-rca cable in their gear, please pm me and i will pay the shipping back to florida. hopefully it didnt get too far west with al it was one nate built for me, so id rather get it back instead of just get a ****ty one temporarily. it has neutrik jacks and does not have any kind of tubing on it. just red wire woven in braid.

yes, you certainly dont want to pass away...passing out...well thats a personal preference.

no internet...FOR 2 WEEKS!!! i would go crazy.

who is nenso? ps. happy birthday dude.

does switching out the fans void the warranty? this might have been answered elsewhere but has anyone asked david to just use better fans from the get go? im sure they have some "silent" fans in china or is it a cost issue to little dot? for the cost im starting to consider it along with my other tube options.

hope you have a great day. happy birthday man.

i think im going to sell the beta and get this. bet it sounds much better too.

just a little warning note...dont try that dvd at relatively high volumes for too long. it says so at the beginning of the dvd but being young and impulsive i forwarded past that portion and now ive had a massive headache for the past 3 days with a pretty bad earache to go with it. hope i didnt do any damage to my ears...couldnt do any more damage to my brain so not worried about that.

no offense man but thats sounds really really boring...cool but i dont think i could sit here and just listen to that for an hour. dreadhead, the volume was raised higher than normal.

well by hear i meant i could hear the diaphragm vibrating without creating any distortion. or as you said, i could feel it moving. but it was clean. no distortion. the 650s however were clipping at anything below 20hz.

ive been messing around with the following dvd http://www.rotarywoofer.com/demodvdwebpage/eminentdemodvd.html the gear is as follows. laptop (ibm t43) -> single ended beta 22 -> hd 650. all generic cables. i tried that bass test with the 650s and the lowest i could hear was the 30hz clip. at lower freq. i knew the driver was moving but it was just a bunch of distortion as if the driver wanted to do something but couldnt. i dont know if the source was prohibiting it from going even down to 24hz...it very well might be the case or is it freq. range listen for ideal conditions/theoretical under lab conditions? i ask because i just tried the crossroads iems i gave away to a friend and with those i could hear down to the 20hz clip. below that, there was a lot more distortion. did they seem to go lower because they are iems and closer to ear drum while the 650s movement of air is not severe enough to be noticed by my ears? chances are my ears arent the same as they were last year (i have noticed an increasing loss in hearing) but the fact that i could hear the freq. with the iems removes the ears as a probably culprit in the problem. oh and the iems were plugged in directly to my laptop (no amp), but the beta was used with the 650s. -cj edit: am i talking about getting the last few % out of the headphone with a much better amp + source with upgraded cables? i know the source needs to be replaced before i make any complaints against the sound but just wondering if theres an answer given the current rig.

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Wittgenstein. read it 3 times already. every time i go through it i figure out new stuff or just things i read originally that dont make sense anymore upon further contemplation. excellent book if anyone wants to pick up some philosophy.