Is the GAT / ET5 hard on tubes?
 

I have had my GAT for several months and I am on my third set of factory 6922 tubes

The tubes do not fail, but get noisy with tube hiss. I noticed the right channel had got noisy. Lucky I have a set of ten left from my art, however this is not good.

I can't see how you can blame the eh tubes as I have not had these issues with my art/prem 16 in the past.

Anyone else had any tube noise issues?

Shane.....I have never had problems with 6922 sovtek / EH on my GAT
I have at present Mullard Holland NOS and I wait for EAT ECC88... no problem of noise
You should speak about it to Ed

Philippe

I have friend in the UK that has had similar problems, however not recently with expensive aperex tubes

The GAT still plays music fine, but the increased tube rush is irritating

strange :scratch2 :I will inform you regarding the EAT, they arrive next week

I've had three tube failures in last couple years, two in ET-3 SE.
One of the failures was the stock CJ tube (Noisy) 2nd in ET-3SE was a Mullard I believe from Tube Depot.

3rd was earlier this year, EAT in ET-5.

In each case, the tube was good one minute and failed during use, went immediately noisy and/or very microphonic. My "assumption" is that each was simply a failure and not affected by the specific use by CJ.. but I surely don't know that for a fact.

...and I don't play heavy-metal music. :)

Shane, have you tried Genalex Gold Lion 6922? It is supposed to be the best quality. New Sensor::Product HighLight

Nope.

Shane,

I had a set of Amperex 6922s become microphonic in about 200-250 hours use in a Pr 17 LS but that was it. Never had the problem at all in my 16 LS2 but for one reason or another I now typically use 6DJ8s, 7DJ8s and 7308s not 6922s. And never had tubes becomes noisy although I've replaced some that were just getting to the end of their time and becoming kind of dull sounding.

Regards,
Joe

Serge, Gotta get past my 1000 hours teflon burnin playtime before I start experimenting on different tubes - especially expensive ones. :yes:

That will be on this list as with only two required, not that big an outlay.

Hi Joe, great to see you join us cj fans here. :thumbsup:

maybe I am being fussy? the tubes are not microphonic or anything. the tube rush comiong out of the tweeter is louder that it should be, and louder on one channel than the other. I put in another cj EH 6922 and the noise reduces back to normal.

Not something you can even hear from the listening chair unless you are looking for it.

But in the new year, it will be time to try a few alternatives and have some fun.

I'm still doin' pretty good with the stock EH 6922s in my Premier 17. I don't know if they've ever been replaced as I'm the second owner of this fine pre. I do want to get some GL 6922s in to try those out, or maybe some Ediswans.

The CT-5 hasn't been a problem, but I think I'm just now getting somewhere around the 1000 hr mark, and those 6H30/6N30s were specifically designed to be extremely durable, so no issues there.

I have confirmed with CJ that there was a defective series of tube from EH. It appears the 2010 series of 6922 have had a high failure rate with many going noisy only after a few hundred hours.
I have seen this in the ET3 as well as the ET5. In both cases putting in another tube (either JJ 6922 or even better Gold Lion 6922) took care of the problem.
As a general rule, avoid EH 6922 that have the 2010 date on them.

Tubes is the ET5 should last 3-5 year without a problem.

Great, that's when I bought a backup pair :(

Most of my spare ones 411are 07 09. Replacement gat two are 09 09

I am sure EH had qality issues in other series tubes as well. Try a Gold Lion and you should have no problems for years to come. Although its the same company the quality control on the GL's is much better.

I don't know if it's my bad luck with tubes, the ET-5 being somewhat tough on tubes or what. :tears:

In the last few days... the system has been moving to sounding "2D" vs that lush magical almost "3D" sound stage. bass seemed a bit anemic and overall just less pleasing.

Just for the heck of it on a whim today, I popped the Ediswan 6922 back in. well right off the deep end was back..and I was back to "seeing the sound in 3D"

So then I do my standard micro phonics tube test on the Ediswan. A simple light touch of the tube in question. In this case it causes a monstrous sound in both speakers. This tube has become one of the best microphones I've ever seen. I know some of this is normal with any tube...and some tubes I can slap pretty good with no micro phonics whatsoever.

So, at this point, although the EAT 6922 is dead quiet and seems to "work", and the Ediswan works wonderfully, but is micro phonic as all get out. (oh and yea, this is of course a "Platinum" version of the Ediswan.) I'm keeping it in for now and ordering another. I'm not sure what I'll do with the EAT. :puzzled-2: My first EAT went way noisy, this one started off sounding wonderful, it still works, but sounds terrible.

Happy Holidays to everyone!!

Well... My Gat sounded a bit flat so I gave the Holland Mullards I put in a few months ago a little tap. On was very noisy and the other just a little. So in went my old EH6922s. One's a little microphonic the other is fine but the sound is okay again. Think this NOS thing is always a gamble. Maybe better to stick with something new and tested. Guess I'll get Ed to send me a couple of new ones tomorrow.

Happy new year to everyone! :roots::wine::newyears:

Bob

my GAT is since a few days equipped with EAT 6922 selected.....it is very probably the end of my adventures on NOS territory,they are absolutely magnificent in all the departments....more to come but but by far they are the best 6922 that I listened with my GAT, I tried Tesla, EH, GL, JJ, Mullard Holland.... remain to verify their reliability in the time
btw I have just had a failure on a new set of NOS Mullard in the 'ignition' and I have fear the worst for my amplifier....

Hoping the result is not "the worst," Philippe.

Happy new year back to you, Bob.

While I've been tempted from time to time to tube-roll in my PR17, I've had such good luck reliability-and-longevity-wise with first the original-equipment Sovteks and more recently EH's that I've decided to leave well enough alone. While that means foregoing a possible bump in performance, I tend to sleep better at night. :D

I have had no trouble with my ET-5 and premature tube failure , I broke it in with the factory tube , switched to a GL 6922, then a EAT -6922 and I have settled in on a NOS Westinghouse which remains my favorite in this pre so far. It has a very involving musicality about it that the EAT or GL did not produce in my setup.

Jim,

Sounds like a plan that works for me also. CJD really does design their equipment for the available new tube stock so we risk making a negative change to the sound with all this rolling.

Also to all... c-j is closed for the holiday season until Jan 3, 2012. I guess we're on our own until then.

Bob

This is getting silly, just installed a Telefunken last evening. sounded wonderful for first hour or so. then a noise/crackle developed in right channel. Did the normal testing to confirm....asking for a replacement this morning.
Maybe all I need is to get off this light work schedule this week...next week I won't have so much time to spend listening to music, maybe in some small way a good thing. :scratch2: ... :no:

'looking forward to that NOS Westinghouse! :D

Rayooo,

Sorry to read about all your troubles. I have a new, spare EH from CJ you can have. Maybe you will have better luck with mine. PM me your address and I'll ship it out.

Joe

My CJ friends,

I have a CJ ET-3 that developed tube "hiss" after only about 350 hours. From talking to several people it seems like the new CJs, (ET-3, ET-5 and GAT) rarely get 1500 hours out of their tubes before problems occur. I only have anecdotal evidence here so I could be wrong.
Can anyone recommend a truly magical tube for the ET-3? I ordered a new Electro Harmonix tube from CJ today but I would like to experiment with other tubes and I am willing to pay for best performance.

Cheers,

Marc

Sorry to hear of your problems. But I really have to wonder about the 350 hours. That does not square with my experience with CJ preamps, which have been so easy on tubes that I feel like I'm being OCD to replace them (once a year) "just in case.' Might there be another issue? Do you leave the preamp on 24/7?

930Blue, welcome aboard! :wave:

Hi Marc
tube issue very probably...
Try with a Genalex 6922 or EAT ECC88, more expensive but to my ears even better with an inclusive guarantee

Hello and welcome!

I definitely like the Genelex 6922 and the Westinghouse 6922 (thanks again repman) I am now back to the EAT . (2nd one working fine, first failed)

I also tried a couple Telefunken E88CC, very nice sounding tube, but the two I tried both failed (noise in one channel) so I basically gave up.

Thanks for the Tube advice. I will give the Genelex and EATs a try.

:welcome2.:

Welcome aboard, Marc.

Gotta bring this chestnut up again.

Really noticed the additional tube noise/hiss when I inserted the prem350 into the system.

Back to the prem8a tube amps and still hiss was there ( not as loud) regardless of volume.

Then put in a pair of Telefunken PCC88's and no noise. Pulled out another pair of cj eh 6922's ( lucky I have a few left over from my spare set for the art) and put them into the GAT.

No noise - WTF?

This is 4 pairs of eh 6922's that have started silent and turned noisy. :grumpy: never had these issues with the prem16 nor art and they had a lot more tubes.

Shane,
IIRC, I've read a number of reports of GAT owners who found their tubes became noisy after a relatively short period of use. Could be that GATs are hard on their tubes, after all.

I have heard the same from an owner I know. He's not happy about it & infact it is ruining his audio frame of mind when he turns his gear on. What do I mean by that -- he now questions whether the system is running optimum at all times or is a tube starting to go south, again.

That's not a happy feeling. He has been in contact with CJ & I don't know what they have suggested/mentioned/etc.

Best

Bob

I still am using my original set.

My original set is still quiet. I've tried a few sets of NOS tubes and they've all been or turned noisy. I finally got sick of it and tried all my tubes... the only ones that were dead quiet are the original EH 6922s. Maybe that's the benefit of getting them from c-j, they reject the noisy tubes before sending them to customers.

All my 4 sets of gone south tubes are cj tubes. Started quiet then noisy. 2 specifically for the GAT and 2 from my spare set ex the art.

I wonder if the voltage makes a difference. Ie. 230-240 vlt. Vs 120 vlt. Are the transformers for 240 vlt spec'd correctly for 240 vlts?

I will contact cj as I am pissed.

I for one would sure like to understand what's going on with this...I've been Ok lately..knock-on-wood.

I never had an issue with my GAT or ET5 for that matter. I am actually thinking about replacing my GAT with another one, because I liked it so much.