Tube amp Darkvoice 336SE making noises

[NystriX]

It's been around a year and a half since I started to use it but for several months now it has started to make some weird noises when I'm playing with the volume knob, especially on low volume and when I increase the volume I'm suffering from a severe static noise. All of those issues started several months ago and got worse as time passed.

I'm new to the Tube world so I'll suspect it's a Tubes issue, would replacing them help? I'll note that I use the stock tubes which are fine for me but I hear people online saying that they're crap.

Should I replace both of them? only the little one?

I'm also suspecting that the power adapter that adapts the local EU standard electricity to the Darkvoice's American power supply.

Either way, I'm not sure what is the problem, as I said before I'm new to the tube amps world, so I figured out I better ask online before making any costly decisions.

[Dave Andre]

hi there,

 

doesn't sound like a tube issue to me - Tubes should last a decade before they start to sound worn out. - Unless you use that amp 7 days a week for 10 hours a day.
Also "static noise" doesn't sound like a tube issue.
Here is what you can do before considering replacing the tubes.
Check the amp on a different power in your place. Even check at a friends place.
Maybe some other stuff in your place provides the noise. Often cheap power supplies are able to pollute the whole circuit. So try to shut down everything but the amp itself.

Also try contact cleaner for the Volume-Potentiometer. Like Deoxit F5 or CRC QD Contact Cleaner.
You can test if the Volume Potentiometer is the issue by moving the knob all the way up and down for like 50 or 100 times. ( w/o headphones attached - you don't want to kill them lol ) If it gets better, get the contact cleaner.
 

[H713]

Tubes are unlikely to be the issue, sounds to me like a dirty volume pot. This is a cheap amp, and so I don't expect they're using anything fantastic for a pot - it's probably carbon.

It's possible you have a microphonic or noisy tube, but that's much less common. Gently flicking the tube should give you an idea if you've got a microphonics issue or a dirty tube socket / cracked solder joint.

 

90% of what gets perpetuated online about "tube quality" is crap. By far the most problematic tubes I encounter are old American tubes (both NOS and used). The NOS ones have been sitting for so long that many of them don't have a clean vacuum anymore, and if you don't recondition them, they arc. Reconditioning tubes is a whole topic to itself, and the process varies significantly depending on the type of tube - reactivating a 100 kW klystron or a 4CW10000A is a whole different ball game from reactivating an 807. 

 

If you end up replacing the tubes in that amp, go for new production.

 

 

 

 

[rice guru]

On 3/21/2023 at 6:11 PM, NystriX said:

It's been around a year and a half since I started to use it but for several months now it has started to make some weird noises when I'm playing with the volume knob, especially on low volume and when I increase the volume I'm suffering from a severe static noise. All of those issues started several months ago and got worse as time passed.

I'm new to the Tube world so I'll suspect it's a Tubes issue, would replacing them help? I'll note that I use the stock tubes which are fine for me but I hear people online saying that they're crap.

Should I replace both of them? only the little one?

I'm also suspecting that the power adapter that adapts the local EU standard electricity to the Darkvoice's American power supply.

Either way, I'm not sure what is the problem, as I said before I'm new to the tube amps world, so I figured out I better ask online before making any costly decisions.

Have you tried cleaning your volum knob it kinda sounds like the potentiometer might be dirty