I had a bit of an issue here almost three weeks ago--it sounded like the stylus was mistracking on the records. (Jumping ahead for a second, it's like there's a fuzziness and weakness in the highs.) Tried another phono stage and removed an attenuator with no change, and then I tried digital and got a similar result. After some deduction, I figured since I had a lot of hours on them, the tubes in the power amp were getting old. Swapped in a pair of GE JAN 5751s, and I thought it might have improved things a bit, so I bit the bullet and got two new Tung-Sol 5751s and a quad of KT120s from Uncle Kevvy.
Those arrived, got them installed. Went to bias the KT120s and noticed the bias LEDs aren't illuminating, even if I turn the adjustment pots briefly through the entire range. So, there's something internal going on here. Contacted Music Technology in Virginia and it looks like I'll send it down to them for a repair. The president was the technical director at C-J, and worked there over 20 years, so he's the go-to guy for repairs. C-J can also repair directly, but they tend to want to push their teflon capacitor upgrade, which costs more than I paid for the amp, and I'd never get that out of it if I tried to sell it. (I've seen others try to sell similar models and try to recover the capacitor upgrade, and they sit unsold.)
I'll miss it while it's gone, but have the PA-7 to shlep out of the basement and drag into my system. (It's a heavy beast.) The site shows a 10-12 week turnaround time. While it's there, I'm having him address the very slight channel imbalance, check on doing the upgrade to the 11A (from the 11, which is the addition of a diode), and add an IEC socket so I can use my own power cord, as the original was nicked and taped up by the prior owner, and I have a couple of spare power cords here.
Those arrived, got them installed. Went to bias the KT120s and noticed the bias LEDs aren't illuminating, even if I turn the adjustment pots briefly through the entire range. So, there's something internal going on here. Contacted Music Technology in Virginia and it looks like I'll send it down to them for a repair. The president was the technical director at C-J, and worked there over 20 years, so he's the go-to guy for repairs. C-J can also repair directly, but they tend to want to push their teflon capacitor upgrade, which costs more than I paid for the amp, and I'd never get that out of it if I tried to sell it. (I've seen others try to sell similar models and try to recover the capacitor upgrade, and they sit unsold.)
I'll miss it while it's gone, but have the PA-7 to shlep out of the basement and drag into my system. (It's a heavy beast.) The site shows a 10-12 week turnaround time. While it's there, I'm having him address the very slight channel imbalance, check on doing the upgrade to the 11A (from the 11, which is the addition of a diode), and add an IEC socket so I can use my own power cord, as the original was nicked and taped up by the prior owner, and I have a couple of spare power cords here.