I started a new thread for this because my saga with the faulty PS-100 just took a seriously odd turn. But first I have to give a little bit of backstory for context so stick with me…
I purchased a new PS-100 from Vintage King in early February. Apparently it was part of a run that had been plagued by bad tubes. Fryette CS was great and sent me new power tubes and fuses.
Shortly after installing the replacements I again noticed some issues with the sound, it just sounded weak with no low end.
I took it to my tech last week, he called me today - here’s where it gets weird.
He told me one of the (new) power tubes was fried. Upon further inspection, he discovered that the phase inverter isn’t a 12ax7 as it’s supposed to be, but an ECC832, which is not the same thing. One side of that tube is putting out around 5 times more signal than the other side.
I’ve emailed support@fryette.com - hopefully they’ll get back to me soon on this as I need some guidance. I’ve emailed Vintage King about it as I’ve kept them in the loop since troubles began - I’m well outside of their return period but they may be able to do a vendor RA as the unit’s been faulty from the beginning.
BTW - I bought another PS-100 a few weeks ago - this one works like a champ and sounds INCREDIBLE!!!
This is normal and the way the PS-100 is designed. The 12DW7/ECC832 is used as a power amplifier driver and phase inverter.
The forum is the correct place now for support. With so much traffic going by on the forum and email, we sometimes don’t realise we are both supporting the same person. So, if you do email support, also add the forum URL this makes it so much easier to bounce between mediums and keep everyone in the loop.
Hi Dan,
Ok, question on the PI tube - is the signal from one side of the tube supposed to be much hotter than the other side?
And what about the fact that one of the power tubes, which are the replacement tubes I received from Fryette a month ago, is already shot? Clearly there’s a problem I need to get to the bottom of.
I’m concerned that your impression about what is going on is colored by your techs misunderstanding about how the PS-100 operates.
You will receive our response directly, but please rest assured that we provided the correct PI tube, the replacement power tubes are almost certainly not “shot”, and this unit probably needs to be looked at by the factory to determine what, if anything is actually going wrong now other than your perception that one sounds different or better than the other one.
My issue has been solved so I’m gonna change the title of this thread to reflect that.
For those interested, I originally was running a device meant for matching disparate impedance between equipment - I don’t wanna mention it here cause I don’t want to appear to be bashing a product or a good company (which they are). Nonetheless, I think that unit caused some things the PS-100 didn’t like, which resulted in my problems. Thanks to David and to Dan for their attention to my issue.
