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.

That's a lot of miscellaneous failures in a short time. Your amps are still under warranty, so the manufacturer is required to take care of you. Even if it goes as far as replacement of the amps so they can keep them in their lab and see what went wrong with this pair. The manufacturer/distributor/your dealer all have excellent reputations so let's hope that they take good care of you.

These are my second pair of D'Yquem's. After several tube failures my original pair were replaced with the pair I have now.

You know my dealer, they are great and spoke with them this morning. They are willing to do whatever it takes to make me happy.

After having such a bad experience with these I am now considering a different Shindo amp. Possibly the GM 70.

I'm not surprised at the excellent service you're getting. That's what I've experienced at CDF as well, though I've been fortunate enough to not have to deal with the failures that you have.

That Lafon GM70 amp is tried and true, it's been in the lineup for a very long time and uses tubes that seem to have a good track record. I haven't heard of the GL 300B's being used all that much in tube amp designs - perhaps they're just not up to the standard that Shindo is used to working with.

My CCQ's with NOS EL34 tubes have been perfect so far - NOS seems to be what Shindo knows. At this point, it certainly sounds like your best bet is to try a different pair of amps. Based on what I've read of the GM70s, they should be an excellent match with O96's, and id guess they're about the same price as the D'Yquems.

Good luck!

It's unfortunate you are having these issues JJ. Funny, I was just at CDF Wednesday. I am confident you are in good hands. That bunch may very well be a dyeing breed. They know their stuff! Best of luck on a quick recovery. I have an LM 211 in my second system, so I can always move it over if need be. But knock on wood, no need thus far.

D'Yquem update.

A couple of days ago a friend I made on this site, Rene aka restock offered to come over and try to help me with my amp issue.

He arrived with a tube tester, multimeter and extra tubes and fuses.

We tested first the 300b's. They tested fine. This did not surprise me as my issue had been that the amp shut down after about 30 seconds and I saw no evidence of tube burn out.

We then tested the 6 AW8A's. As expected they tested good as well.

We then turned the amp upside down and removed the bottom. We checked the fuse and tested it. It was also good.

Inside the amp are are two GE 6 AL3 tubes soldered to very short wires. We decided to check these as well. The first one tested good but the second one was dead.

We broke the solder and removed the bad tube and replaced it with a matching GE tube. Rene soldered the new 6AL3 to the internal wire, replaced the rubber grommet.

We then re-biased the 300b tubes to the proper setting and buttoned up the amp.

We also had to replace the fuse in the power cord socket as it had burned out.

Powered the amp up and lo and behold, MUSIC.

Many thanks to Rene for helping me out, without his help I would not be listening to these superb amps as I type.

If not for both of us being members of AA this wonderful experience would not have happened.

Thanks again Rene and AA.

Outstanding! Kudo's Rene :thumbsup:

+1 !

I wish I have a René near my home !

He taught me a lot about dealing with some of the tube amp issues.

So much so I bought a Fluke multimeter today and backup fuses. Also ordered a full backup set of tubes to be prepared next time.

Fact is, tubes fail, you just need to be prepared and have the skill to replace and move on.

I am also looking to buy a tube tester. Hopefully find a good restored vintage one.

I like happy endings.

Happy and still awake at nearly 3am. This Shindo stuff is like a drug. Can't stop listening. I keep saying this is the last record. I will go to sleep. Soon.

I'm happy for you:).Yes it's a drug JJ.

I'm glad that all is solved. I had the same issue with one of my Manley and frequent fuse blow. I found out that one of the input tube was dead and was causing the blowout.

Changed the tube and it never happened again (except with the PSVane but that's another story...)

That's a great conclusion! Rene saves the day!

And thanks JJ for posting the detailed conclusion, it may well help out others who deal with difficult to diagnose problems with tube amps.

What a great ending to this story. Just a cute little tube caused all this grief!

+1 on those happy endings. Rene is the man. I'm happy all is resolved.

I wanted to let tube owners take advantage of my experience and hopefully use it to help in the future.

That said, I don't want any more trouble anytime soon.

Thanks to Jay and everyone for the kind comments :thumbsup:

I am just glad I could help and we actually got the amp up and running again and Jay is enjoying the music again :music: Hopefully this is the last of the bad luck with tubes!

I am certainly looking forward to coming over again and listen to the D'Yquem again...

I am listening right now. Sounds great!

You are always welcome.

Thanks again Rene!

Isn't it quite depressing the dealer can't fix your sexy, expensive amps & an awesome AA member does instead ?

Certainly not depressing in the least. My dealer is absolutely amazing and has gone above and beyond many times to deliver, repair and provide excellent service when needed.
Unfortunately they are several hundred miles away and could not get to me the next day.
I was very lucky to have an AA member close by who was knowledgeable and willing to help.
This does not in any way reflect on my dealers lack of ability or willingness to help.

You may want to search the archives in the Shindo forum to hear how good and responding my audio dealer actually is.

Your comment is condescending and unwelcome at the very least.
Rude and uninformed at best.

:thumbsup:

This does underscore that it would be very valuable to have US based options for Shindo service. How much would it have cost for shipping and insurance to Japan, not to mention transit time?

Agreed !

I vote for Nick Gowan of True Sound in Campbell (Silicon Valley area)- He's the official US repair for Kondo (Audio Note) Japan, Audio Note UK, & Acoustic Research recommends him too-

Look him up on Yelp- Not easy to find a competent, trustworthy person for high end audio repair-

Plus he's a super nice guy & of course big time into tubes & vinyl-

Jay, may i ask if you are still owning and enjoying the D‘Yquem?