Q: After months of waiting, I finally got my Little Dot Mk IV SE tube amp. However, my left side is like 40% higher then my right side in volume. It's been burned in maybe 20-30 hours now and have yet to solve itself out. What can I do? I'd hate to send it back to China.
A: First make sure your tubes are well seated.
Actually even before that play the same source on different headphones so that you know it's not your headphones, check your DAC to make sure it isn't the cause of imbalance, change the RCA cables, make sure your volume is balanced on your computer, and that your source file isn't the problem.
Next wiggle the headphone jack and make sure it's not a loose jack.
If all that checks out OK, now onward:
Next swap the driver tubes and listen. If the right side is now louder than the left, then its a defective driver tube. If no change, then...
...Swap the power tubes (careful, they are hot! although you haven't been properly baptized to tube amps until a power tube burns off a piece of your skin). If the volume imbalance swaps sides, then it's crap power tubes.
If swapping both pairs of tubes does not change the imbalance, it may be a bad potentiometer. Typically (though not always) the imbalance from a cheap pot is best appreciated at low volumes, as you increase the gain the imbalance may get less.
A: First make sure your tubes are well seated.
Actually even before that play the same source on different headphones so that you know it's not your headphones, check your DAC to make sure it isn't the cause of imbalance, change the RCA cables, make sure your volume is balanced on your computer, and that your source file isn't the problem.
Next wiggle the headphone jack and make sure it's not a loose jack.
If all that checks out OK, now onward:
Next swap the driver tubes and listen. If the right side is now louder than the left, then its a defective driver tube. If no change, then...
...Swap the power tubes (careful, they are hot! although you haven't been properly baptized to tube amps until a power tube burns off a piece of your skin). If the volume imbalance swaps sides, then it's crap power tubes.
If swapping both pairs of tubes does not change the imbalance, it may be a bad potentiometer. Typically (though not always) the imbalance from a cheap pot is best appreciated at low volumes, as you increase the gain the imbalance may get less.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for commenting! Comments on this blog are moderated.