Atma-sphere S-30 lost channel--help!

Gopher · « **Reply #20 on:** 11 Nov 2010, 11:28 pm »

I'm about to order more tubes and am not game for waiting for a shipment from Russia--I'm already waiting 3 weeks on a trio.

Is there any problem with me mixing Russians and Chinese power tubes?

Berto · « **Reply #21 on:** 12 Nov 2010, 03:16 pm »

Quote from: Gopher on 11 Nov 2010, 11:28 pm

I'm about to order more tubes and am not game for waiting for a shipment from Russia--I'm already waiting 3 weeks on a trio.

Is there any problem with me mixing Russians and Chinese power tubes?

Curious how much are the russian tubes? I found a chinese seller for about $7p/tube. As far as mixing , why not make notha 20 second call to Atma

wilsynet · « **Reply #22 on:** 12 Nov 2010, 03:28 pm »

Why not just order some more tubes from Ralph?

Gopher · « **Reply #23 on:** 12 Nov 2010, 04:23 pm »

Well, I ordered some Chinese tubes up though at double what Berto found 'em for. Berto, if you wouldn't mind PMing me your source at that price I'd appreciate it!

Does Atma-sphere sell tubes? I know they have to keep 'em on hand to selling in their amps, but I didn't know if it was appropriate to ask for them to sell me just tubes... Even so, I think they abandoned the Russian tubes a while ago and I would buy buying Chinese tubes and looking to mix still.

EDIT: Ahh, I see they do sell tubes and even their own interconnects. Cool to know.

Gopher · « **Reply #24 on:** 18 Nov 2010, 01:00 am »

My new tubes arrived but all is not well... Same general symtoms existing.

Not sure where to go from here but I'm starting to get a little frustrated.

My digital rig was sounding quite good with the atma, but my vinyl synergy was thrown off and now I'm not really sure how to proceed... Keep trucking, fix the problem and try to attack the synergy? send it off to Ralph and let him update it to a MK 3.1 while its there? sell it now? sell it updated? keep trying? start over with something a little lusher?

who knows.... I've been tune-less for two weeks and am withdrawing hard.

eclein · « **Reply #25 on:** 18 Nov 2010, 01:13 am »

You said it already "..start over with something a little lusher" its already got ya thinking about upgrading it so fix it, sell it and get something that works for ya. Just my .02

Pathologymd · « **Reply #26 on:** 19 Nov 2010, 08:08 pm »

I have M-60s and I'm not sure of the "vintage" of S-30 you have, and depending on your abilities and the availability of an ohmeter, I would take the bottom panel off and check some resistances with the unit unplugged. Again, not sure of the vintage, but you should either have 1 ohm resistors attached to each output tube plate or 5 ohm resistors attached to the cathodes (as well as smaller grid stop resistors). Blown tubes have been known to "take out" some of these resistors. I would also check the balance and bias pots the same way. The great thing about these amps is there is rarely anything serious (which I define as a transformer in this case!) that goes wrong. Hope I haven't jinxed you. Good luck and be careful under there. If you have the experience, double checking the power supplies is always a good step.
William

jtwrace · « **Reply #27 on:** 19 Nov 2010, 08:11 pm »

Gopher

What have you decided? Do you have another amp that you can use in the meantime?

Gopher · « **Reply #28 on:** 19 Nov 2010, 08:50 pm »

I'm gonna poke around inside and see if anything is blatantly wrong this weekend. Also will send a picture to Ralph to spot. I may have an older MK II which came before the change from 3 to 5 ohm resistors. If that is the case its not unlikely a resistor went and it may be an easy enough fix.

I have not decided on a course of action fully. I think I'm going to buy the Jaasmine EL156 amplifier I'd inquired about here previously, but I'm not sure if I'll sell the Atma just yet or what. I do not have an extra amp at the moment and have been listening to either nothing or my stereo in gimp mode. Tomorrow I'm borrowing a pair of mono blocks from a local buddy. At least the urgency will be gone and I can make a proper decision rather than a withdrawal one.

jtwrace · « **Reply #29 on:** 19 Nov 2010, 08:55 pm »

Quote from: Gopher on 19 Nov 2010, 08:50 pm

I'm gonna poke around inside and see if anything is blatantly wrong this weekend. Also will send a picture to Ralph to spot. I may have an older MK II which came before the change from 3 to 5 ohm resistors. If that is the case its not unlikely a resistor went and it may be an easy enough fix.

I have not decided on a course of action fully. I think I'm going to buy the Jaasmine EL156 amplifier I'd inquired about here previously, but I'm not sure if I'll sell the Atma just yet or what. I do not have an extra amp at the moment and have been listening to either nothing or my stereo in gimp mode. Tomorrow I'm borrowing a pair of mono blocks from a local buddy. At least the urgency will be gone and I can make a proper decision rather than a withdrawal one.

Please keep us updated.

The reason I ask about the second amp is this. I have a Class D amp case that I'm going to make an amp out of. I don't have an SDS amp yet but can have one in a week. I'm willing to get all the parts, put it together and ship it to you in the meantime if you need something. It sounds good and will power just about anything.

Gopher · « **Reply #30 on:** 20 Nov 2010, 04:25 am »

Extremely cool offer, JT. I really appreciate it.

I'm actually waking up in the morning to visit with a buddy who is loaning me his backup amplifiers to tide me over until I've resolved my issues.

This is one thing that really makes me love this board: I've had a handful of guys and even a dealer offer to loan me their extra amplifiers, no strings attached. This is a really great community and I'm glad I joined it!

Thanks guys!

jtwrace · « **Reply #31 on:** 20 Nov 2010, 04:31 am »

Quote from: Gopher on 20 Nov 2010, 04:25 am

Extremely cool offer, JT. I really appreciate it.

I'm actually waking up in the morning to visit with a buddy who is loaning me his backup amplifiers to tide me over until I've resolved my issues.

This is one thing that really makes me love this board: I've had a handful of guys and even a dealer offer to loan me their extra amplifiers, no strings attached. This is a really great community and I'm glad I joined it!

Thanks guys!

No problem! If you get bored and want to try it, just let me know.

atmasphere · « **Reply #32 on:** 23 Nov 2010, 08:13 pm »

Quote from: Gopher on 19 Nov 2010, 08:50 pm

I'm gonna poke around inside and see if anything is blatantly wrong this weekend. Also will send a picture to Ralph to spot. I may have an older MK II which came before the change from 3 to 5 ohm resistors. If that is the case its not unlikely a resistor went and it may be an easy enough fix.

FWIW the only failure we have seen in these other than tubes is in the earlier units like this one (yes its a MkII, about 9-10 years old). The early ones were equipped with 1 ohm 3-watt resistors in the output section. There are 2 per tube socket, and it takes maybe 5 minutes to pull the cover and test every one of them in the amp. These resistors are only on the power tube sockets, and all you are looking for is a continuity test. IOW, either the resistor is good or it isn't. The 3-watt value in the early units proved to not hold up in some cases if a tube arced (though the 'math' said they would be fine...). We've not had any trouble once we increased the wattage to 5 watts, which must have happened shortly after this unit was built.

Gopher · « **Reply #33 on:** 23 Nov 2010, 08:24 pm »

Thanks for the follow up Ralph. I did not get the opportunity to remove the bottom cover yet. I had some time this weekend but felt a little intimidated noting the number of screws securing it. I plan to pop it off and take some pictures for you as we talked about shortly.

I'll also try my hand at testing the continuity of the resistors.

jtwrace · « **Reply #34 on:** 23 Nov 2010, 11:56 pm »

Quote from: Gopher on 23 Nov 2010, 08:24 pm

felt a little intimidated noting the number of screws securing it.

I'd be more than happy to test it for you.

Gopher · « **Reply #35 on:** 14 Dec 2010, 01:31 am »

After being out of commission for about a month the S-30 is back and in business! I broke down and sent it out to Ralph for a servicing where he performed some updates and brought it back up to spec.

It arrived at my office today and I'm firing it back up with my Zu Soul Superflys now in good health with brand new (NOT BLOWN!) power tubes. I also have my Black Treasure CV-181-Zs in the first position with my NOS Ratheon quad occupying the next two and it sounds very good.

Using the Black Treasure up front it sounds more similar than not to my 845 monoblocks. The treasures really bring out some nice tone and harmonic foundation, while the Ratheons add some warmth and sweetness to an amplifier that can otherwise err towards the analytical.

Picking a winner between this and my 845 monoblocks may be tougher than I thought...

zybar · « **Reply #36 on:** 14 Dec 2010, 01:32 am »

So what was the issue?

George

Gopher · « **Reply #37 on:** 14 Dec 2010, 01:37 am »

Had lower spec resistors of old models and something caused all power tubes on one channel to fail except for one. The last one arched and took out a bunch of resistors with it.

jtwrace · « **Reply #38 on:** 14 Dec 2010, 01:39 am »

Quote from: Gopher on 14 Dec 2010, 01:37 am

Had lower spec resistors of old models and something caused all power tubes on one channel to fail except for one. The last one arched and took out a bunch of resistors with it.

Was the repair expensive?

Gopher · « **Reply #39 on:** 14 Dec 2010, 01:51 am »

Between the repair and shipping it set me back a couple hundred bucks I wouldn't have minded not spending, but I do derive some peace of mind knowing Ralph brought it back to life and has it operating back to spec and performed some updates. I can keep it or re-sell it without having to worry this way.