Butterfingers Bash w/My PV5

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macabre1993
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Butterfingers Bash w/My PV5

Post by macabre1993 »

A couple weeks ago I was reconfiguring my rack to accommodate another power amp and move my PV5 to an adjacent rack. I had the CJ in my right hand and was disconnecting cords with the left when the unit flew out of my hand onto the (thickly) carpeted floor. I immediately put power to it and everything seemed to be okay. Checked all inputs and outputs, all seemed well...

Last week the CJ developed an intermittent static. Volume control has no effect and it is present in all inputs & outputs. The phono stage was noisy beforehand but line stages sounded fine before the accident.

It'll be awhile before I can squirrel back enough $$ to take it to the shop. In the mean time I will root thru my old tubes and try a bit of rolling...
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Re: Butterfingers Bash w/My PV5

Post by admin »

Sorry to hear about your "accident." If you think the damage was done during the drop, you can try to open it up and make sure the connections are intact (no broken or loose). You would think that it would a connection issue (maybe tube problem) as a drop would be unlikely to damage solid state components, caps, etc. Maybe using a voltmeter/continuity check on the circuits?
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Main stereo: ART Amplifier and ET7s2. 2nd stereo: PV-14L and MV-55. Previously Owned: PF2 preamp, Evolution 2000 Amp, PV-12AL preamp, D/A-2b Vacuum-Tube Digital Processor.
macabre1993
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Re: Butterfingers Bash w/My PV5

Post by macabre1993 »

Crossing my fingers, I removed each tube and replaced them, one at a time. I have the PV5 powered up, as well as the amps, so far dead quiet. I'll give it the usual 20 minute warm up and try a CD.

Hmm, just got a 30 second or so burst of static, maybe ten minutes into the warm up, now dead quiet again.

Now static is back, continuous but volume variable, only coming thru the right channel
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Re: Butterfingers Bash w/My PV5

Post by admin »

If it's right channel only, that at least narrows it down. When you say your "replaced the tubes", you mean completely new tubes correct? If not, then change the tubes to see if it is a tube problem. If it's not that I would start tracing the right channel circuits. I would also try running the unit for a while so it gets warmed up. Then with a non-conductive rod (like a wooden chopstick), I would gently apply pressure to the individual components in the complete channel path. If you hear something change, it could be a way of identifying a loose connection. It's really fast and if you can identify something like a bad soldier joint that perhaps cracked when the unit was dropped. Let us know how it goes.
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Main stereo: ART Amplifier and ET7s2. 2nd stereo: PV-14L and MV-55. Previously Owned: PF2 preamp, Evolution 2000 Amp, PV-12AL preamp, D/A-2b Vacuum-Tube Digital Processor.
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Re: Butterfingers Bash w/My PV5

Post by hi-fi »

I realize this is an old thread but others reading or searching may find a recent post addressing this useful.

I just took my PV-5 out of the box after setting it aside about 6 months ago. It had developed a subtle but very apparent popcorn-popping sound mainly in one of the channels. Didn't matter what volume it was set at or source selected. Doubtful it was tubes because it did it regardless of phono or line stage. I figured power supply and was very disappointed because the PS was upgraded by CJ in 2006.

I have full backup NOS GE tubes and just TODAY I decided to get it out and just replace them all as a shotgun approach. It's relatively easy and costs nothing but a little time. The bad news is I could have been listening to the PV-5 instead of it resting 6 months but the good news is that after 12 hours of operation it continues to operate totally silent. Being my only tube component I'd not have guessed a faulty tube(s) would have caused such noise globally Whether phono or line stages, so apparently both are continuously active outputs rather than one or the other.

Now I plan to work backwards to find which tube(s) caused the noise by replacing ONE at a time with the tubes I removed. I don't have a tube tester and hate leaving time on NOS tubes if they are not hindering performance! Hope this is useful info to someone else.
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