| Author |
Message |
    
Thunderbolt
| | Posted on Thursday, August 09, 2001 - 4:14 pm: | 
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I have an old polamar amp I just bought used online,hmmmm,I dont know the wattage but it has a group of 3 8950 tubes together and 1 8950 tube in the back.I pulled the cover to inspect and dids not see anything obviosly wrong so I plugged it in.It started humming and smoking then tripped my breaker! I found a 450v 100mfd capacitor oozing liquid out of it! I have no idea what happened so maybe you can help.I know it could be anything. |
vernonott
| | Posted on Thursday, August 09, 2001 - 9:02 pm: |
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Thunderbolt: Before you spend a lot of money on that amp have the tubes tested to make sure they are 85 to 90 % capacity output .The 8950 tube is not manufactured anymore and you will pay a premium for the one's that you find.I used to run a Palomar Skipper 300 which had one 8950 driving three 8950's.Good 8950 tubes are worth much more than the amp itself.Their is a guy I know who can change the circuits and run modern tubes but it cost more than the amp is worth. |
John
| | Posted on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 12:40 pm: |
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just like i said in the other subject, I THINK TUBES COST TO MUCH AND THAT THEIR JUNK, AND THIS IS DIRECTED TO HAMCBER IN REFERENCE WITH WHAT WAS WRITTEN ABOVE. |
Tech181 (Tech181)
| | Posted on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 1:07 pm: |
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John,
Different strokes for different folks. Relax buddy!
Steve
Tech181
Tech181@copperelectronics.com |
John
| | Posted on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 3:19 pm: |
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ok man, im just stressed cause my neighbor, wants to cut my coax! lol hahaha |
John
| | Posted on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 3:20 pm: |
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hey thunder bolt, what city do you live in? |
Skullman
| | Posted on Friday, August 10, 2001 - 7:10 pm: |
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Tubes are fairly expensive, but if you already have a good amp and don't want to upgrade to a new one, put some new tubes in if you can find them. Also, I know this is strange, but some people prefer running old nostagic radios. I still fire up all of my old 23 channels for fun. So don't knock old tube style equipment, it serves it's purpose. |
Josuha
| | Posted on Saturday, August 11, 2001 - 10:43 am: |
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Thunderbolt,
Just a couple of hints to old tube rigs.
ALWAYS bring the rig up to voltage on a variac slowly. Old capacitors loose their capacitance after many years of sitting idle.
Older rigs almost always need to be recapped. You can get capacitors online. Personally I use "orange drops". They are cheap and exceed the specs of the older caps.
As far as which is better..solid state or tube..does'nt matter. What does matter, is if your having fun with old vintage equiptment. Hope this helps. 73's |
707
| | Posted on Saturday, August 11, 2001 - 5:38 pm: |
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I'll take a tube amp over a solid state amp for base use any day. 6L and 6J tubes are cheap compared to the hassle of replacing rows of soldered transistors. |
Thunderbolt
| | Posted on Sunday, August 12, 2001 - 7:18 pm: |
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Well thanks for the comments but I dont really care who likes tube amps or who likes solid state. The fact is I have a tube amp that I got from yahoo auction that I cant return and I just plugged it in the wall outlet not hooked to anything else and it bellowed smoke right away.I dont have a tube tester. I live in Herndon Virginia.My fist amp in 20 years. What a dissapointment. |
vernonott
| | Posted on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 3:38 pm: |
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Thunderbolt : Doing the auction scene has always been a gamble.No different than doing business in Las Vegas.Their is a certain element of people out there who will sell you junk.The guy on the street corner will sell you a Rolex watch for $20.00 knowing that it is fake.Last year I purchased a $300.00 radio on the auction that wouldn't work when I received it.The person who sold it said it was in excellent condition.I try not to get upset about these things .If I lose $300.00 on the the blackjack table in Biloxi or get stiffed by a con artist on the auction it is just part of living and doing business.Sorry if I got a little long winded. |
Snakedoctor
| | Posted on Monday, August 20, 2001 - 4:00 am: |
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Thunderbolt......Chances are you just have a power supply glitch. It may be a shorted electrolytic or bad diode (or both) . I own a few old tube amps and have owned many more over the years. If it were my box, I would change the cap. and check the diode bank and try it again. Don't condem the tubes just yet. There's more to it than just a tube problem. This type of amp uses high voltages which can cause this type of falure if the caps dry out with age and lack of use. Changing them is no big deal....you can still find them for a couple of bucks depending on the size. Sometimes it takes a little time and patience to get those old amps cleaned up and working again. |
Thunderbolt
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2001 - 1:03 pm: |
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I took this amp to the docter about 2 hours from here and he had to rebuild the rpower supply.Cost me $70 bucks.He said the tubes were in great shape and it works well.He also said it had been worked on before by someone who didnt know what they were doing and the seller most likly knew about this.Would you believe the seller gave me a bad rating because I complained to him!! Oh well,now I am into this amp for $250 for a 450 watt amp.I have since picked up a 1kw Johnson in perfect shape for $35!! the guy has been out of radios for 20 years. |
409
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2001 - 3:23 am: |
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I have an old Palomar amp myself and would like some info if anyone has any. It's an old 350Z tube type, but with no tubes. Looks like it's in pretty good shape, but I don't have any expierence with this one. Any help appreciated..... |
Joe
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - 2:00 pm: |
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What do you need to know about the 350z? |
Suicide Jockey
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 11:34 pm: |
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Thunderbolt, DO you want to sell the tubes out of your palomar?? If you still have it. I have two palomar skippers that need tubes. let me know at
SuicideJockey@CBhandle.com.
thanks |
Rci2990
| | Posted on Friday, May 10, 2002 - 11:29 pm: |
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The Palomar 300A is a pretty decent amp too BTW!
TUBE RADIOS AND AMPS RULE!!!!!!
Cant beat the tube audio with anything else IMHO! |
