New Prima Luna Amp In Distress / Me Too


Prologue II 40WPC Integrated – (4) KT-88s (2) 12AX7s (2) 12AU7s. The amp arrived new six weeks ago and has maybe a bit over 200 hours operation. Today, sequences of double popping began coming over the speakers. About a second between each pop then after a minute or so another double pop. There was no input signal at the time.
I switched the input selector from phono over to CD and the popping continued.
I then played a CD and noticed a gain and fidelity increase in the middle of the pops (the short sequence). I then noticed that the blue glow from one of the KT88s increased within these short bursts of fidelity/gain that were bracketed by the pops as well.
I shut off the amp and let it cool before swapping tubes to see if the problem followed the tube or was dedicated to that socket. When the amp was powered back up, the popping was gone but both middle output tubes (the ones that were swapped) did not come up to full blue glow and a good part of the bass section has fallen through a trap door in the soundstage – and remains that way. It is now off line. I’m ready to box it up and send it back for warranty work. One note – this amp has a proprietary on-the-fly auto biasing circuit.
Anyone who can explain what’s going on will have praises sung by me until my dying day. I’m heartbroken!
mario_b
Tell me more about the blue glow? I know this is an old thread.
I want to see it.
In summary blue gaseous glow in power tubes is good, and pretty. Lack of it is neither unusual nor indicative of anthing bad to come.

For a detailed explanation of the reasons go to Audio Asylum and look at their FAQ's. I'm too lazy to explain.
In summary blue gaseous glow in power tubes is good, and pretty. Lack of it is neither unusual nor indicative of anthing bad to come.

OTOH I recently had a blue gaseous glow on start-up in the lower part of a new NOS 5AR4 rectifier tube. I should have known something was wrong as it had just glanced the needle ever so slightly upon testing for emissions on my tester. It was so slight I didn't think much of it until I saw the glow, and then heard the occasional popping sound in that channel once the amp was up and running. Swapped out the tube and no popping sound. Turned out it had a hairline crack at the base. I don't know if the blue glow had anything at all to do with it, but I'd never before noted any blue glow at the base of a rectifier tube before this. You tell me. The (ebay) seller of the tube refunded my purchase.
Never saw any blue gas glowing in a rectifier or small tube either. Only power tubes. I guess we should just keep a bottle of Beano around. Too much gas around here. :-)
Front end tubes for PL1/2.Shuguang Triple-mica 12ax7:Telefunken based copy.Mazda/Radio Clifte French military 12au7s.These tubes will run about $100/4 and greatly improve on tonal body,immediacy and sound-staging.The "originals" are a little cool sounding.