[zedmeco]

I got my second adapters as well, these were the "A" type, I have two pairs of the ts6485, one pair that i abused a bit trying to solder wire on to and another unused pair. I tried them both with this adapter and did get sound but both pairs are giving me noise, am I really that unlucky? still waiting for the adapters that have all the pins connected and 2/7 linked by wire. hopefully this version will work form. 
I have ordered these two tube:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181150393451?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
and
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330721493306?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
 
with the latter, do I use the adapter or are they just plug and play using the ef95 setting?
thanks 
z

 

[Acapella11]

Quote:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330721493306?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
 
with the latter, do I use the adapter or are they just plug and play using the ef95 setting?
thanks 
z

 
EF95 plug and play. You can try EF91/92 as well.

 

[mordy]

Tube rolling scare:
 
Was going through my lot of 22 6AU6 tubes and decided to try a RCA pair. The pins on one tube were slightly bent and I took a needle nose pliers and carefully bent back a couple of pins. Stuck the tubes in - one channel is dead. Moved around the tube a little in the socket - nothing.
 
When I pulled out the dead tube I noticed that one pin was missing! It had snapped right at the glass! What if I can't get hold of the missing piece? Luckily it broke off in the 2 position with the 2-7 strap in place and a little piece was sticking up, about one mm. I gingerly pulled out the pin with the needle nose pliers- whew!
 
This is the first time a pin snapped on me. Wonder if anybody else had such an experience? What are you supposed to do if you cannot get the pin out? Push down the piece into the innards of the amp with a paper clip? Can you open up the amp and pull it out from underneath?
 
Hope that it doesn't happen again.....Maybe I shouldn't mess with with bent pins, but I did straighten out several pins in the past without problems.
 
Waiting to hear the collective advice.
 

 

[inphu510n]

Quote:

Tube rolling scare:
 
Was going through my lot of 22 6AU6 tubes and decided to try a RCA pair. The pins on one tube were slightly bent and I took a needle nose pliers and carefully bent back a couple of pins. Stuck the tubes in - one channel is dead. Moved around the tube a little in the socket - nothing.
 
When I pulled out the dead tube I noticed that one pin was missing! It had snapped right at the glass! What if I can't get hold of the missing piece? Luckily it broke off in the 2 position with the 2-7 strap in place and a little piece was sticking up, about one mm. I gingerly pulled out the pin with the needle nose pliers- whew!
 
This is the first time a pin snapped on me. Wonder if anybody else had such an experience? What are you supposed to do if you cannot get the pin out? Push down the piece into the innards of the amp with a paper clip? Can you open up the amp and pull it out from underneath?
 
Hope that it doesn't happen again.....Maybe I shouldn't mess with with bent pins, but I did straighten out several pins in the past without problems.
 
Waiting to hear the collective advice.
 

Yikes!
As far as I know if you were to push the bent pins further into the socket you'd never get them out. Aside from being soldered down to a PCB the underside of the socket isn't open; they look like this.
 
I've definitely not had pins break on me yet. I'd hope their mostly steel composition would render them a bit more malleable than that. Maybe that was just an unlucky tube where the pins had been bent around too much already?

 

[Nic Rhodes]

This is why I use pin straighteners rather than pliers (and probably why pin straighteners exist). I use a soft plastic RCA one to get them in the right ball park, then use the high tollerance metal ones which are actually so close they remover any corrosion / debris from the pins quite effectively. They are effective and although I haven't bought one in years I suspect they pop up regularly on ebay. [I even have the opposite for straightening sockets!!]
 

 

[zedmeco]

I got the ek90 6be6 today, plugged them in to find they both hum, I put in the second pair but they hum too. i have a little dot mk3 first edition. Am I really that unlucky? my only hope for these new tube types is the Sylvania GB 6136 6AU6 Gold Pin I have yet to receive. When I read about all your collective experiences with these new types of tubes, I really want to get in on the action, we all want the best sound we can get but so far I have not found anything that sounds acceptable never mind outshining any of the ef95 tubes i have. Am I doing something wrong? Is my amp different from all of your amps? I have bought two pairs of the Tung Sol 6au6 and two pairs of the Siemans 6be6 as well as the socket converters and the sylvania 6au6 gold pin so I am into this for over £100 now but to no joyful aural experience.  Any advice or comments would be gratefully received as right now I am really disappointed.

 

[gibosi]

Quote:

I got the ek90 6be6 today, plugged them in to find they both hum, I put in the second pair but they hum too. i have a little dot mk3 first edition. Am I really that unlucky? my only hope for these new tube types is the Sylvania GB 6136 6AU6 Gold Pin I have yet to receive. When I read about all your collective experiences with these new types of tubes, I really want to get in on the action, we all want the best sound we can get but so far I have not found anything that sounds acceptable never mind outshining any of the ef95 tubes i have. Am I doing something wrong? Is my amp different from all of your amps? I have bought two pairs of the Tung Sol 6au6 and two pairs of the Siemans 6be6 as well as the socket converters and the sylvania 6au6 gold pin so I am into this for over £100 now but to no joyful aural experience.  Any advice or comments would be gratefully received as right now I am really disappointed.

 
In my experience, it is not uncommon for tubes to hum when you first put them in, but most of the time, they settle down after burning in. You are not using the socket converters with the EK90, right? So that would eliminate the socket converters as the problem.... Put in a pair of your EK90 and burn them in for 20 hours or so, to see if they will quiet down. Good luck!

 

[MIKELAP]

Quote:

I got the ek90 6be6 today, plugged them in to find they both hum, I put in the second pair but they hum too. i have a little dot mk3 first edition. Am I really that unlucky? my only hope for these new tube types is the Sylvania GB 6136 6AU6 Gold Pin I have yet to receive. When I read about all your collective experiences with these new types of tubes, I really want to get in on the action, we all want the best sound we can get but so far I have not found anything that sounds acceptable never mind outshining any of the ef95 tubes i have. Am I doing something wrong? Is my amp different from all of your amps? I have bought two pairs of the Tung Sol 6au6 and two pairs of the Siemans 6be6 as well as the socket converters and the sylvania 6au6 gold pin so I am into this for over £100 now but to no joyful aural experience.  Any advice or comments would be gratefully received as right now I am really disappointed.

You say you have a first generation mk3 the v1.0 version could that be the reason compare to others who maybe have the v2.0 is that possible !

 

[inphu510n]

You say you have a first generation mk3 the v1.0 version could that be the reason compare to others who maybe have the v2.0 is that possible !

From what I've read here this is the most likely reason.
I have a MKII v2.0 and haven't had any issues with rolling except for the recent trials of double diode triode tubes (6AV6). Those tube types produced a buzzing/clicking noise in my amp. Fortunately they were not the best tubes.

Have you tried the 2+7 pin strap using a bit of wire?

 

[mab1376]

Quote:

 
In my experience, it is not uncommon for tubes to hum when you first put them in, but most of the time, they settle down after burning in. You are not using the socket converters with the EK90, right? So that would eliminate the socket converters as the problem.... Put in a pair of your EK90 and burn them in for 20 hours or so, to see if they will quiet down. Good luck!

 
I always clean the pins before installing with Deoxit.
 
I really good way to get almost all corrosion off is to spray a sponge with it and shove the pins into the sponge to let it soak for a minute or so, then take it in and out a few times to wipe it clean and tada clean pins.
 
I've heard some strange noises from corrosion before so i never skip this step anymore.

 

[inphu510n]

Quote:

 
I always clean the pins before installing with Deoxit.
 
I really good way to get almost all corrosion off is to spray a sponge with it and shove the pins into the sponge to let it soak for a minute or so, then take it in and out a few times to wipe it clean and tada clean pins.
 
I've heard some strange noises from corrosion before so i never skip this step anymore.

I've found that Deoxit helps prevent but as far as removing corrosion, I use the backside of an Exacto knife to scrape the pins shiny clean.

 

[Acapella11]

Quote:

I got the ek90 6be6 today, plugged them in to find they both hum, I put in the second pair but they hum too. i have a little dot mk3 first edition. Am I really that unlucky? my only hope for these new tube types is the Sylvania GB 6136 6AU6 Gold Pin I have yet to receive. When I read about all your collective experiences with these new types of tubes, I really want to get in on the action, we all want the best sound we can get but so far I have not found anything that sounds acceptable never mind outshining any of the ef95 tubes i have. Am I doing something wrong? Is my amp different from all of your amps? I have bought two pairs of the Tung Sol 6au6 and two pairs of the Siemans 6be6 as well as the socket converters and the sylvania 6au6 gold pin so I am into this for over £100 now but to no joyful aural experience.  Any advice or comments would be gratefully received as right now I am really disappointed.

Hi zedmeco, That is indeed very disappointing. Make sure your jumpers sit right and your pins are clean and burn them in as Gibosi suggested. I am not using a V1.0 LD MKIII, maybe that makes a difference.
 
I received the Siemens EK90 (6BE6 type) tubes today and I am burning them in as we speak. So far, I am quite impressed - very transparent and detailed with great imaging, a bit brighter than the TS 6BE6, which could be a positive feature for some. Final conclusions will have to wait until they are fully burned in and this has to wait a little as I have probably the next two weeks not much time for tubes. Actually, I would like to add that the QED Reference Audio 1 cable I use is quite a nice one for the LD as it sounds very three dimensional and transparent (punchy bass, extended treble as well).

 

[mab1376]

If i remember the v1 can take 408A tubes which is the 20v version of the 6AK5, might have something to do with it.

 

[MIKELAP]

Looks like we can use the new socket for all the EF 92 family tubes but could the sockets be used also for the EF 91 family tubes.ex: Mullard M8083/ CV4014 this is ending up being a great investment i hate changing those jumpers.

 

[gibosi]

Quote:

Looks like we can use the new socket for all the EF 92 family tubes but could the sockets be used also for the EF 91 family tubes.ex: Mullard M8083/ CV4014 this is ending up being a great investment i hate changing those jumpers.

 
Are you asking about the sockets that allow you to use 6AU6 and 6485 tubes? If so, these sockets connect pins 2 and 7, and if used with EF91 and EF92 tubes, they would connect grid #2 to the cathode, which is acceptable. However, it may well be that they will sound different....
 
I believe that some members of this forum are working with the socket vendor to obtain a socket which will connect pins 5 and 7, which is what the jumpers do. If so, these might be better for EF91 and EF92 tubes, and they would also allow you to use triodes.