18Watt.com

tone wrote:Update: The only real complaint is the thing doesn't do ef86 valves.

Seriously?? That's kind of a deal breaker for me. I love EF86 preamps. Orange better add it in there for the next version or update.

I agree. I have at least 4 amps I built with EF86 preamps in my office right now.

Came across this one the other day. I think it looks really good and would be interested in other opinions before having a go at building one.

http://www.valveheaven.com/wp-content/u ... tester.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

davidw wrote:Came across this one the other day. I think it looks really good and would be interested in other opinions before having a go at building one.

http://www.valveheaven.com/wp-content/u ... tester.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Very interesting! I'm going to have to look into this more. Thanks for sharing!

Hmmm! I've got a suitable chassis, all the parts (even the transformer due to an old, old SS hi-fi amp project that never got done) and Harbor Freight nearly always has those $5 DMMs in stock. This could happen!

Much thanks.
KennyO

CurtissRobin wrote:Hmmm! I've got a suitable chassis, all the parts (even the transformer due to an old, old SS hi-fi amp project that never got done) and Harbor Freight nearly always has those $5 DMMs in stock. This could happen!

Much thanks.
KennyO

Do it! You'll probably have free time to do it before me, and I'd love your opinion on it.

Do it! You'll probably have free time to do it before me, and I'd love your opinion on it.

Not likely soon ... I just got a lead on a sidecar for my project bike, it's about to turn to April and the sun is shining; what do you think my priorities are this week??!!

KennyO

CurtissRobin wrote:

Do it! You'll probably have free time to do it before me, and I'd love your opinion on it.

Not likely soon ... I just got a lead on a sidecar for my project bike, it's about to turn to April and the sun is shining; what do you think my priorities are this week??!!

KennyO

Crap. Oh well, I guess we'll see who gets around to it first.

Freddy wrote:The Orange tube tester looks interesting but for $500 it just gives you three indicators: Good, Worn, or Fail. No way you can match up power tubes with that system.

Hi, I would just like to correct your assumption on the Orange tube tester.

Yes you can match power tubes with the unit, it's one of it's features. it has a bold and straight to the point matching system.
You can also test for the matching in dual triodes (12AX7, 12AU7, 12AT7)

This unit is marketed towards the musician and not the electronics tech, so it's dead simple and easy to use.
What are orange matching tests, or matching assumptions I don't really know, but I used it quite often to match power tubes, and when I plugged the tubes into a Push Pull amplifier am biased the amp the current consumption was quite similar between all the output tubes, so it seem to work.

For a time I had the Hickok 6000A tube tester and the Orange VT on the shop, so I tested same tubes on both, results were not consistent between the 2 units, Orange seems to "Fail" more tubes than the expensive Hickhok, so then I was just confused in which unit to trust.
Anyway you cannot match tubes with a tube tester, even if you have an expensive tester like the Hickok or the Avo MKIV, but you can for sure get some level of matching that works well in real world with the Orange VT.

Anyways if you really want to get into tube matching, the only way of doing it properly it's with a Curve Tracer.
I also recommend the Utracer that was mentioned in this thread already.

http://www.dos4ever.com/uTracer3/uTracer3_pag0.html