[vsr123]

Hi
  I have a CD->GK-1->Aksa 55 that I have been using for the past 2 years. The last few months though I have been running it through a 220V->110V transformer and then to the above setup (since they were all North American units and now require 220V). Yesterday I noticed a crackling sound in both tweeters after about 45 mins to 1 hour of play.
the crackling sound is there throughout and not just when I perform any particular actions (such as tunring the vol knob)....I removed the Gk-1 (CDP has vol control) and could not reproduce this noise. I tried with a different CDP setup and the same result (crackling with Gk-1 and no crackling without). Could it be time to replace the tubes? The noise is appearing in both channels (tweeters only). the problem does not seem to occur as soon as I switch on the equipment and run it, instead it seems to take sometime before it is audible.
has anyone encountered something like this before?

thanks
vsr

[AKSA]

Hi VSR,

This could be a dry joint in the tube socket.  Resolder all of them again, see what happens.

If this fails, I'd suggest new tubes.

One of the big issues with tubes is the heat.  It dries out the solder, creating bad connections which only show up after being heated for a time.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

Hugh