New Tube Tester Day

[Wizard of Ozz]

New tube tester day!

I've been eyeing these for awhile and they are a huge upgrade over my old, but trusty Hickok. I got both the Maxi-Matcher 2 power tube tester and Maxi-Preamp 2 testers from http://www.maximatcher.com . Both units are exceptionally well made, very nicely laid out, and test for all the main functions that a tube amp user will be interested in knowing.

First are a few pics, and I'll give some more explanation below:

Maxi-Preamp 2:
Allows the user to test up to 4 noval preamp tubes by measuring: gain factor of both triodes (A/B) rated in Mu, Transconductance Gm in umhos (micro-mhos), and Noise in decibels measured as dBV where 0 dBV = .775 Vrms. The best features are the gain and noise measurement. The unit has RCA out jacks so you can plug in a breakout RCA to 3.5mm cable and listen to the sound thru a pair of headphones, or use a RCA to TRS cable to a mixer or powered monitor. Really neat. No more tapping on tubes at volume to find a noisy microphonic tube. Cables not included.

Maxi-Matcher 2:
Allows the user to test up to 4 octal power tubes for internal short (special socket for this as well as built in smart-fuse), at real life plate voltages of 325 or 400V (much higher than any of the vintage units made in the 1950s-1960s), measure the plate current of each tube in milliamps mA, and transconductance in mMhos (milli-Mhos). Great for matching sets of power tubes without having to put them in your amp... and to weed out blown tubes so you don't have blown screen resistors and burnt pcbs, sockets, etc.

Both of these units are super. Zero issues and both work as advertised. Really no other competitors on the market (except for 1 that is much higher priced and does not test 4 tubes at a time) besides the old Hickok, Sencore, Tripplet tube testers from the 1960s that don't test at 400V. And they don't test for noise either. The newer Orange Amps VT1000 is good too, but a little overpriced for what it does and no numerical measurements. Very happy I made the investment and they are great for buying lots of old vacuum tubes and making your own matched pairs or sorting preamp tubes. There are also socket adaptors available to test the weird odd-ball tubes too.

Just an FYI: in the pics of the Maxi-Matcher I'm testing 2 new out of the box, bought direct from Mesa Boogie, Mesa 6L6GC Gray color code tubes... which are supposed to be "matched"... a difference of almost 5 mA doesn't count as "matched" in my book. Hmmm.

 

[SpiderWars]

I've been wanting both for a while now. Tube tester gas is a bitch.

 

[psychodave]

Awesome. I bought them a few years ago. One of the best investments to get. We all have amps that cost thousands of dollars and have no clue what tubes we are putting into them. I don’t put any tube into my amps without first testing them. An added benefit is I know exactly what I’m putting into my amp and can replicate it in the future. So many people are tone freaks yet ignore this major aspect of tube amps.

FYI: I’ve bought plenty of tubes from popular tubes sellers only to find out what I got isn’t what I ordered.

 

[Rick Lee]

How much is that gizmo? I obviously don't need it and really want it.

 

[lespaul6]

I wish I had one of these... which test offers the most in terms of how the tube eq will sound? conductance or gain or?

 

[RedB4Black]

Awesome! I’ve been eyeing these for a while now but I just can’t bring myself to spend the money on them. With 7 amps I really should though.

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

How much is that gizmo? I obviously don't need it and really want it.

The power tube tester is $700... the preamp tester $990.

... but there is really no other options. And these are the ideal sort of units for tube amps. A decent vintage tester from the '50s-'60s can easily run $700-$800... then you need to to calibrate it (unless you diy... calibration is another $200)... and they usually use old hard to find rectifier tubes (80 & 5YGT3 recto tubes which are rare and pricey in and of themselves)... then they only put out 150-200V in optional conditions... and only test 1 tube at a time... slow... so...

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

I wish I had one of these... which test offers the most in terms of how the tube eq will sound? conductance or gain or?

From my limited experience so far (maybe Dave can chime in)... gain is the most useful for tone... but transconductance is better for matching triodes... like for matched triodes in a phase inverter tube.

The best thing for me is being able to listen to each triode for noise. Some have one side really quite and the other triode super noisy => reject pile. No more chopstick tapping.

Also there appears to be an inverse relationship between transconductance and gain (so far I've noted higher gain = lower transconductance)... despite what the old manuals and guides tell me there should be a more general direct linear relationship. The more you know.

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

Awesome! I’ve been eyeing these for a while now but I just can’t bring myself to spend the money on them. With 7 amps I really should though.

Do it. I was hemming it over too. It is a bit of cash to drop... but I'm super pleased. No more time and money wasted. Tubes not meeting my standards will be promptly returned. With all my amps... I'm well over 100 tubes in use... scary... but true. And tube quality seems to only be getting worse and worse.

 

[Kordoba]

Very cool, thanks for posting.

 

[SpiderWars]

Does that include the adapters for EL84s?

 

[psychodave]

Does that include the adapters for EL84s?

Nope. Each adapter is like $35. I bought one so I can only test 1 at time. No big deal.

I do use socket savers for the preamp tubes since I literally have 100’s. The socket savers were super cheap off eBay. The preamp savers also fit under the unit cover. I have some for the power tubes, but they are quite large and don’t fit under the cover. I will use them only if I’m testing a large supply of power tubes, otherwise I don’t bother using them.

 

[JMP2203]

this is great, congrats

 

[JTyson]

Cool score! Congrats!
Ive seen more than a few "matched" sets that were out past 4mA
My understanding has always been that matched sets were within 1.5 of each other, but its tough to find them that tight now. Laura (valve queen) matches em up tight from what Ive heard.

 

[Whowantsamustache]

I’m all about improving the tones just as much as the next guy. Does having perfectly matched tubes make that much of a difference?

I have the orange vt1000 and it’s good for testing if a tube is good or bad. Is it worth the upgrade? I’m not much of a NOS tube connoisseur.

 

[ericb]

Wah, I know I'm in bad shape when I call this post "Maximatcher porn". . . I"ve wanted both for years now , and have 20+, hundreds of extra tubes and just haven't justified the price. Missed out on a couple of used ones, and really NEED to buy these. Enjoy and put to good use

Eric

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

Cool score! Congrats!
Ive seen more than a few "matched" sets that were out past 4mA
My understanding has always been that matched sets were within 1.5 of each other, but its tough to find them that tight now. Laura (valve queen) matches em up tight from what Ive heard.

Thanks. I agree with you about "matched power tubes". Even a few years ago it was much better. And preamp tubes are even worse. I lot of builders go with the lower gain "safe" preamp tubes... reliable, yes... but it does not do anything positive for the sound.

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

Wah, I know I'm in bad shape when I call this post "Maximatcher porn". . . I"ve wanted both for years now , and have 20+, hundreds of extra tubes and just haven't justified the price. Missed out on a couple of used ones, and really NEED to buy these. Enjoy and put to good use

Eric

I feel ya. I read a few of your posts about them over on TGP. I been after these for awhile... but never felt like spending the money. A good set of tubes in the right amp brings it to life though. Really hard to get the right tubes (especially NOS) w/o spending a lot of time and wasted money.

 

[JTyson]

I’m all about improving the tones just as much as the next guy. Does having perfectly matched tubes make that much of a difference?

I have the orange vt1000 and it’s good for testing if a tube is good or bad. Is it worth the upgrade? I’m not much of a NOS tube connoisseur.

If your power tubes get out very much, you'll start noticing the dreaded 60hz hum when running it. There are several things that can bring that about, so you start trying to eliminate what could potentially be causing it. This eliminates or confirms the power tubes right off the bat, which is pretty handy.
We have all seen threads that start with "Amp hums when taken off standby" every few months, I rarely see bias on power section tubes as one of the first responses, yet I have seen this dreaded hum due to mismatched power tubes several times on my own. I have a Bias Master setup on my bench, so I check that first, but this is a better solution. My power tubes are always matched pretty tight when I put them in new, but over years of use, one of the tubes can start drifting (bias) before the others without any visual signs of trouble
Am amp with really tightly matched tubes has a much better shot at giving you the impression you were looking for in the first place (yes, its a JCM800, but this one is one of the really good ones!) You may get the impression everything in this particular amp is more magically "right" than the one sitting next to it, when all it could be is tighter matched tubes. They do sound better, and it does make a difference
Yes, a much more expensive solution, but if your gonna have a stable full of tube amps that you want to stay on top of, its not that expensive
ME WANT

 

[JTyson]

I must say, tube testing/matching equipment gas is something Ive not really experienced until now... It is somewhat strange
WoOZ and Psychodave are miles ahead of me in ways I have not even thought about until now
Years ago, I purchased a Marshall Dual Monoblock 100/100 power amp from Psychodave, the big day came with its arrival. After a minimum of 2 hours to get it unboxed and out of the nuclear bombproof packing job (it was a thing of beauty, really) I went to install the tubes and noticed Dave had the SED Winged C's numbered for each of the 8 sockets and had instructed me to make sure they were each in the right socket, as he had matched them up and biased the amp with each one in a specific location..
I remember at the time thinking "wow, Dave is uncommonly anal about power tubes" I later realized that it was more "No, he just knows more about this than I do, and likes everything to be as good as it can be. And he has taken the time and effort required to learn what he has learned over the years"
I much more appreciated Dave for that...