Oh no. I think I busted my RS-1s.

[postjack]

Shit.

I'd been listening to my RS-1s for a couple of hours. These are the darker wood used ones I bought from Larry at Headphile a couple of months back. I stopped the music and turned off the amp to roll out the tung sol's and RCA grey glass 6sn7, and roll in the sylvania gold pin 5687s and a Ken Rad vt-231 6sn7. All the tubes are firmly in place, and I crank up the amp. A few seconds later, I hear an alarming POP noise come from the general vicinity of my headphones and amp. Just a singular, loud, POP. The RS-1s are now only producing sound from the right cup.

I plugged in the HD650 and everything is fine. I even rolled out the tubes in desperation, to no avail. FUCK.

Okay, first off, can anyone make an educated guess as to what the hell happened, so I can avoid doing it in the future? I always have a pair of headphones plugged into the amp, even when its off, so they are always plugged in when I turn the amp on. What did I do wrong?

Second, I don't suppose there is anything I can do about getting these fixed? I'm certainly not covered under any kind of warranty, who knows how many owners had these before me. Does Grado Labs do paid repairs, or should I just hunt for a new pair?

FUCK FUCK FUCK :'(

[Chekhonte]

I cannot offer anything but by deepest sympathy. I hope you can find a way to fix your headphones inexpensively.

[n_maher]

Grado certainly does repairs and that is probably your best bet for getting them fixed.

Sorry to hear of your troubles, I can't say for sure what might have happened since you rolled all the tubes at the same time (right?). The only thing that sprang to mind is that I've heard it's a very bad idea to roll in cold tubes in combination with warm ones, but even then I'm not sure it would have caused what happened.

[postjack]

Grado certainly does repairs and that is probably your best bet for getting them fixed.

Sorry to hear of your troubles, I can't say for sure what might have happened since you rolled all the tubes at the same time (right?). The only thing that sprang to mind is that I've heard it's a very bad idea to roll in cold tubes in combination with warm ones, but even then I'm not sure it would have caused what happened.

Thanks all for the condolences, I'll get in touch with Grado Labs and see what they can do to help me.

And yes, I rolled in all three tubes at once. Regardless, when I'm tube rolling, I usually leave the amp off for some time, maybe half an hour, until the tubes are dead cold, before I roll them out.

Okay, so I guess this is just bad luck on my part. I'm all twitchy now though.

Listening to the HD650s now and everything sounds fantastic, so I don't think anything is wrong with the amp. Thats a plus.

Fuck though, you know. Shit.

[Dusty Chalk]

Just be thankful you didn't have them on your head at the time as well.

All the same, I hate when shit breaks, be it my fault (as is the case with my ATH-A100Ti) or otherwise.

[ojnihs]

Sorry to hear that...I hope the cost of repairing those won't be too expensive.

And, as Dusty said, definitely glad that it didn't happen when you had them on your head.

[postjack]

Just be thankful you didn't have them on your head at the time as well.

Great point. Then I wouldn't have to worry about headphones anymore, because I wouldn't be able to hear shit. I actually never have headphones on when I power up the amp, because there are unpleasant noises as the amp heats up. Now that I think about it, the one time I did have them on, there was an unpleasant, but low volume popping coming from both L and R cans, which is why I don't wear them anymore.

I just wrote Grado Labs an email, we'll see what they have to say. If repair is too pricey, I'm just going to have to sit patiently and wait for another used deal to come up and roll the dice, because I sure as shit don't want to pay $700 for a new pair. Or maybe I'll buy something further down the line like the MS2i, but I'm afraid I'll just end up disappointed and wanting the RS-1s again.

I'm using the HD600s now, and they are fine, but seriously dullish sounding coming from solid Grado listening for the past couple of months (I think its been 2 months). At least now I have no excuse not to dig in and really listen to that stack of Living Stereo SACDs growing on my CD rack.

[postjack]

Damn, already got a reply from Grado Labs. Who is holding down the fort there at 10:30pm CST on a Monday?

In short, they said I definitely blew a driver. Repairs are a $100. Not bad. I didn't want that Genesis SACD box set anyway.

[deepak]

Who is holding down the fort there at 10:30pm CST on a Monday?

Probably John Grado

That hum you hear is the tubes warming up.

edit: not sure if this caused the RS-1 death, but I'd let the tubes warm up for at least a minute before you let any music play.

[postjack]

edit: not sure if this caused the RS-1 death, but I'd let the tubes warm up for at least a minute before you let any music play.

Right on, I'll take that advice for future reference. However, the POP did occur while no music is playing, in the first few seconds of the amp heating up.

Regardless, the RS-1s are headed to Brooklyn tomorrow. I'll tell them to say word to Biggie for us.

"Who shot ya? Mob ties like Sinatra

Peruvians tried to do me in, I ain't paid them yet"

[TheSloth]

hopefully they sound as good repaired as they did pre-damage. who knows if the drivers have changed.

What a cruel thing to do. Now, even if the drivers haven't changed, he's still going to be wondering ad infinitum...

[postjack]

hopefully they sound as good repaired as they did pre-damage. who knows if the drivers have changed.

:'(

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

Maybe you should look into getting an amp that doesn't blow up your headphones.

Biggie.

[postjack]

Maybe you should look into getting an amp that doesn't blow up your headphones.

Biggie.

Actually thats a good point. But I honestly don't know whether to blame the amp or the headphones. And if it is the amp, I don't know if this is just something intrinsic to PPX3's, Slams, Singlepowers, or if there is just something wrong with my specific amp.

Here are a couple of things I do regularly. Somebody tell me if any of these are "bad":

1. I unplug and plug in RCAs while the amp is on (to change sources)

2. I unplug and plug in different headphones while the amp is on. I stop the music and turn the volume knob down all the way when I do this.

3. The only time headphones are not plugged into the amp are the few seconds when I do #2. I keep headphones plugged in when the amp is off, when the amp is on, when turning the amp off, when turning the amp on.

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

Well there was no music playing when your driver blew correct? That tells me that the amp sent your phones something they couldn't handle.

1. I've been told this is bad practice

2. This is bad if your tube amp doesn't have a dummy load (no load = bad)

Biggie.

[aerius]

If I were to take a guess, I'd say it has something to do with the tubes and the amp design. It's possible that one of the tubes was slightly wonky and did something stupid when it was warming up, which then did bad things to the amp and fried the RS-1 driver. This is why I plug in my sacrificial headphones when I'm firing up new tubes for the first time on my amp, you never know where the tubes have been and what they'll do. Alternatively, build a protection circuit of some kind for the amp to keep it from doing wonky shit.

Moving a couple posts back:

1) This is a bad thing, you're making & breaking ground contacts & loops which can result in big thumps, hums, and pops which may damage the headphone.

2) Depends on the amp design. Some amps really don't like this, others don't care.

[postjack]

Thanks for the input big and aerius, I'll definitely stop pulling and plugging in RCAs, and might as well stop switching headphones while the amp is on, just to be safe.

The tubes might have done something wonky, but these are tubes I'd used before many times, and they've never done this before.

Kind of makes me want to go solid state just to avoid the hassle, I just don't know if a solid state amp exists that can be as satisfying as tubes.

[recstar24]

Couple of different possibilities. You may have experienced tube arcing, usually occurs at power up or power down when the grid voltage exceeds the plate voltage, and would be specific to that particular tube. The AVVT 2a3 meshplates for example have an issue with arcing due to deformed mesh plates and very tight spacing, and will arc sending huge offset to the drivers. I can't use them in the moth 2a3 for that same reason, its DC coupled and can't handle the offset. Can be quite scary, I've heard stories of people blowing Reps-1 drivers over tube arcing, not good.

If it is the amp's fault, there is a way to make sure it doesn't happen again. one side of the power switch can be wired to short the input tube's supplies to ground through a resistor, if it happens again let mikhail know so he can take care of it.

[postjack]

Couple of different possibilities. You may have experienced tube arcing, usually occurs at power up or power down when the grid voltage exceeds the plate voltage, and would be specific to that particular tube. The AVVT 2a3 meshplates for example have an issue with arcing due to deformed mesh plates and very tight spacing, and will arc sending huge offset to the drivers. I can't use them in the moth 2a3 for that same reason, its DC coupled and can't handle the offset. Can be quite scary, I've heard stories of people blowing Reps-1 drivers over tube arcing, not good.

If it is the amp's fault, there is a way to make sure it doesn't happen again. one side of the power switch can be wired to short the input tube's supplies to ground through a resistor, if it happens again let mikhail know so he can take care of it.

Right on, thanks for the feedback. So far, it hasn't blown any of the Senns, and it sounds fine. I'm using different tubes now, but the tubes I had in before had been fine for a good month, great sound, no splodin' grados. Is it possible that a tube that had been operating fine could suddenly "do some wonky shit" all of the sudden, to use aerius's terms?

anyway, gtg, just got a great offer on myspace to check out nude pics of this hot chick. man, she must be real pissed at her ex-boyfriend!!

[deepak]

Some girl is sending you nude pics of her ex-boyfriend

Some revenge

[justin]

I've had this happen a few times before, only with "new" tubes and somewhere in the first hour of their use, but after that no problems. You could possibly avoid this by extensively burning in all tubes with a dummy load on the amp.

When I mentioned this to KG, he said Atmasphere had the same problem and just burned in all the tubes for 100 hours at full current before use

[postjack]

I've had this happen a few times before, only with "new" tubes and somewhere in the first hour of their use, but after that no problems. You could possibly avoid this by extensively burning in all tubes with a dummy load on the amp.

When I mentioned this to KG, he said Atmasphere had the same problem and just burned in all the tubes for 100 hours at full current before use

Thanks for sharing your experiences, I'll take this advice and apply it. The 6sn7 was definitely not new, probably had many hundreds of hours on it (it came with the amp, was used by previous owner). The 5687s were newer, but I'd been using them for about three weeks, so around 50 hours, give or take.

Newb question: when you say burn in the tubes for 100 hours at full current before use, do you mean playing music through them, or just leaving them on with some cans plugged in, with the volume turned up?

[postjack]

So I just got home and rolled in a syl 6sn7 short, with the same syl 5687s in the output position. Turn on my amp, and heard a similar, but much less loud, "pop". Had my HD650s attached at the time, but listening right now I think all is well with them.

I'm going to stop using the sylvania 5687s altogether and go back to the tung sols, and see if the pop ever happens with them. They are the only common denominator here. If I hear the pop or blow some other headphones in the process, I'll know its something wrong with the amp. Sucks, those syls sound really nice. I'll spend one more night with them then roll them out tomorrow.

[PFKMan23]

Are you sure it's not your tubes that are bad?

[postjack]

Are you sure it's not your tubes that are bad?

That is what I am thinking, that it is the syl 5687s. The first time it happened it was with ken rad 6sn7 + syl gp 5687x2, the second time it happened it was with syl short 6sn7 + syl gp 5687x2. So the only common denominator are the syl gp 5687s. However, I've used them plenty of times before the first time, and after the first time, with no problems. In other words, the pop doesn't happen every time I turn on the amp with these specific tubes in, but the two times it has happened I've had these particular tubes in.

So I'm not going to use those tubes anymore. If the pop occurs again, then I'll know it must be something wrong with the amp. I have a feeling its the tubes though.