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previous: Wild Bill Keep in mind that running at 80-85%... -- 1125804743 view thread

Re: Why 60-70% max plate dissipation?

9/4/2005 10:16 AM
Chuck
Re: Why 60-70% max plate dissipation?
I'm behind you Bill. As I indicated in my last post, I experience greatly reduced tube life. With EL84s it's no big (especially since I got about 40 of them as a gift from a customer :)). But I may be changing the bias a little when I have to actually BUY some. I think the extra wear and tear (and probably the tone) would be a bigger issue with 6L6, 6V6 or EL34 tubes. Plus, as I said, my amp is cathode biased. IIRC whith a hot cathode bias there is very little rise in dissapation as you push the amp. And I'm still getting premature tube failures at 1 watt over. So you don't need to convince me.  
 
The only reason I'm doing it is because this amp has a Vp of 400. I don't generally like the sound of EL84s that high but I find that cooking the bejeesus outta them helps warm the tone back up.  
 
Chuck

 
Replies:
Brad Thanks Guys, I found everyones inpu... -- 9/8/2005 4:18 PM