[Bigfish]

Many of my fellow Circle Members probably read my thread posted on Friday a week ago about turning on my Candela to hear only a hum in my right speaker.  Shortly after reading the post AlexG called me and he was able to hear the hum over the telephone.  Alex instructed me to box up the Candela and ship it back to him.  Tonight, I received a call from Alex to let me know he had discovered the source of the problem and that my Candela was again making beautiful music.  What was the problem?  The problem resulted because this novice did not clean the tube pins and treat them with a contact enhancer prior to installing them into the Candela.  The tube pins were not making good contacts in the sockets and the hum/lack of music I obtained was the result.  Alex said he removed the tubes and the oxidized material on the pins of the Amperex Tubes I had installed produced quite a bit of black on the cleaning cloth after treating with the cleaner.

Another comment Alex made is that vintage tubes typically have very slightly smaller diameter pins than the pins on new stock tubes produced by JJTesler.  He told me when I install vintage tubes I have to take care to make certain I am getting good contact of the pins in the sockets.

Yes, I feel quite dumb that I did not know to clean the tube pins and to add contact enhancer prior to installation.  However, I cannot speak positively enough about the rapid personal response I received from Alex G of Odyssey Audio.   

Thanks again Alex!

Ken

[TomS]

Great to hear a positive result and good that you shared it with those of us (me) who also wouldn't have known better   No harm there.

Did Alex happen to mention what cleaner and contact enhancer he suggests?  If it's one of those conductive types, like Walker or Xtreme Gold you need to be very careful on tube pins since it's highly conductive and can lead to shorts.  Caig Labs or something like that seems fine to me though.

Tom

[Bigfish]

Great to hear a positive result and good that you shared it with those of us (me) who also wouldn't have known better   No harm there.

Did Alex happen to mention what cleaner and contact enhancer he suggests?  If it's one of those conductive types, like Walker or Xtreme Gold you need to be very careful on tube pins since it's highly conductive and can lead to shorts.  Caig Labs or something like that seems fine to me though.

Tom

Hi Tom:

I hope Alex will issue a correction if I misunderstood but I jotted down I should purchase a Deoxit Spray from Radio Shack and ProGold Contact enhancer.  He advised that I should apply the deoxit spray to a clean cloth or paper towel and use the cloth to clean the pins (do not apply spray directly to pins).  Once the cleaning is completed then apply the ProGold to another cloth and polish the pins.

Ken

[Haoleb]

I bought a bunch of the Caig deoxit and progold pens when my local radioshack had them on clearance and they work great on tubs pins because you can get in there and scrub them where its hard to reach. Radioshack doesnt sell those pens anymore, they only have the little spray cans for 18 bucks. At least my local one does anyway.

[AlexG]

Ken,

No problem at all ....my pleasure.

I hope Alex will issue a correction if I misunderstood but I jotted down I should purchase a Deoxit Spray from Radio Shack and ProGold Contact enhancer.  He advised that I should apply the deoxit spray to a clean cloth or paper towel and use the cloth to clean the pins (do not apply spray directly to pins).  Once the cleaning is completed then apply the ProGold to another cloth and polish the pins.

Right to the point...I should emphasize to not spray the tube pins directly but use a small cotton cloth or paper towels...apply (small amount) Deoxit to the cloth and then put a pair of tweezers in between the wet cloth and rub the tube pins in a circular up and down motion. Do the same after this step and apply a small amount of Progold. Radio Shack sells both small spray cans in one package as a kit and should last a long time.

I have come across many NOS (read used!) tubes in the past (mainly Mullards and Amperex...for some reason) with dirty pins showing plenty of oxidation and contaminated. Remember that these NOS tubes have been around for many years at various warehouses around the world!

Also, please be very gentle when swapping tubes...remember the tube pins and tube socket form a physical contact and extreme swapping will produce wear in the tube sockets if not done carefully.

Thank you,
Alex