Comments on Profile Post by penguins

To clarify - I'm pretty sure the tube is dead etc. - just wonder if this is "how it happens"

Was it still bright? Sounds more like it lost heating aka dirty pins? It's not how tubes normally die from emission loss.

Thats how one of my amperex orange globe died. It still works for few seconds and then fades away

I've had power tubes fail somewhat spectacularly: amp on for hours, then all of a sudden redplating and large increase in distortion, then loud honk noise, all in the five seconds it took me to get over to the amp and kill it. Happened twice over probably 5 or 6 sets of EL34s/6CA7s, after thousands of hours of use.

m17 - pins were cleaned with deoxit before use. This particular tube was still "lit up" but was not as bright as the other input tubes would be the entire time. I figured this is just tube variation as some tubes I have almost don't light up at all.