[revrob]

Recently I am having a problem with my tube preamp, Audio Valve Eklipse. I lost the right channel which I thought was a problem with the tubes so I replaced the tubes and the right channel works great for a day and then it goes out. You can still hear the music very softly as compared to the other channel. There is no hiss or distortion just very quiet.

So I turned the preamp off for a while and now I have sound back in both channels so I am thinking it is not the tubes. But after 1/2 hour the right channel is back out, very quiet music coming from that channel.

Question. What do you think is causing this? It has been hot in New England but it does not seemed to affect the left channel that keeps on playing. Preamp may need service but any ideas where I can send it to on the East Coast for out of warranty service?

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Peace.

[Wayner]

First, did you check your interconnect wires?

Next, it could be the tube socket not getting proper contact with the tube pins. One fix is to spray the tube sockets with a contact cleaner such as De-oxit 5 (a Caig Product) to clean the contacts.

Also, does your preamp have tape out switches or perhaps a stereo/mono switch, as the signal will surely be passing thru these as well. These switch contacts may be fouled as well.

Also, if possible, move your source player to another input to see if the selector switch may be a culprit as well. Swap the source interconnects and see if the problems switch channels.

I do believe your problem is mechanical.

Wayner

[orientalexpress]

i have the same problem with my phono stage after i clean the tube socket and replace the cheap chinese and russian tubes.the problem go away.


lapsan

[revrob]

I believe I fixed the problem. The Eklipse has a cleaning mechanism that cleans all of the contacts. You must manually activate it and you should clean the unit this way once a week for 10 mins. Once I realize this I unplugged my amp and engaged the cleaning mechanism and it appears to have solved the problem.

Thanks for all of the replies. I only have had the preamp for a couple of months so orientalexpres was right.

Thanks.