D'Yquem Amp Troubles
 

Well folks, here we go again with D'Yquem amp problems. Have not used my system very much recently but decided to do some late night listening as the wife is out of town.

Not to be. Turned on my amp and the tubes seemed to light up properly but after about 30-40 seconds the amp just died. No power at all.

Tried switching power sockets but no luck. My guess is the fuse just blew. Why, I don't know.

My luck with these amp's has been worse than bad. Many tube failures and now it appears a fuse failure.

I can only guess that there may be something wrong in the design of this product.

I don't use my gear very often, once or twice a week at most but about every dozen or so times I turn it on something fails. Very frustrating!

As much as I love the Shindo sound wondering if the equipment will fail every time I switch it on is getting old fast. Got some thinking to do.

Geez... I'm sorry to hear this news :sigh:

Personally, I could never tolerate such frequent problems regardless how great it may sound when it works properly.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. With this kind of unreliability my system would be a source of anxiousness rather than pleasure. What's the point then?

I know. I am now at the point where the problems far outweigh the sound quality.

Most Shindo amps have not had issues like this. I can only guess a possible design flaw. I am no expert but this many failures don't lie.

I see changes in my future.

Absolutely. Was looking forward to an evening of music and solitude.

Instead a night of frustration and anger. Whats worse is this has happened many times. At a certain point you lose patience and moving on is the best remedy.

Sorry to hear about your continuing troubles...

Tubes can be troublesome and sometime you just have bad luck - a friend absolutely loved his MC275 (latest edition) even though one zener diode died shortly after he got it causing some tube troubles, then a tube died and took out both the tweeters on his new Dynaudio speakers...

Drop me a line if you need any help checking out the tubes...could be again a tube failure taking out a fuse...

Hi JJ. Sorry to read this.
Do not take the decision to part from them just because of a fuse after some tube failures. I had one of the fuse of one of my CCQ blow away 2 months ago. Fuses are here to blow and that is good when they do.
Many things can happen when you power on a tube amplifier.
Unfortunately our domestic AC current can be of very poor quality during very short time. You want the fuse to blow when this happens ! Do not blame your amp. Blame your AC company provider !

But I would still test your the tubes just to be sure. It could be a tube getting bad. Moreover, did you recheck the bias about 100 hours after changing the last 300B's ? If the bias changed and was not adjusted, you can have there an other reason for a fuse blow.

As many said before, tubes are by nature unreliable. They compensate this by sound quality. There is a price to pay for every thing in this world.

There cannot be any "design flaw" in your amps. Because they were made by one of the best tube circuit design experts in the world. Would you question a simple multiplication made by a Fields Medal mathematician ? Are you kidding ??

Now, the most reliable tubes on earth have your first name on them: JJ.
Please try them if it appears again that one GL is faulty. And be sure to set the bias correctly and recheck it after 50 / 100 hours.
Good luck buddy !

Thank you Rene. Quite possibly the problem.

My question is why so often. Are Gold Lion 300b's this bad or is there an inherent issue with the D'Yquem amp that takes out the tubes so often.

I have never heard of Shindo amp's blowing tubes and fuses as regularly as mine.

Thanks for your concern. It is much appreciated.

Come on JJ !
How will you spend the night then if you learn one day that you or a beloved one has a non curable cancer ?
Praise the Lord to be blessed with tubes and fuses problems instead of something else and get back the big SMILE on your face ! :D

You hit very close to home with the cancer analogy.

I will not get into details but a close family member is in recovery and hopefully will be discharged very soon.

Although perspective is achieved when comparing I would never think of my music issues in the same light as life threatening issues. Two very different topics of conversation.

Thanks for your comment though.