Maybe a strange question ?

[Guy 13]

Hi all.
Soon I will have a Crack and maybe later (Much later),
I will buy the Stereomour and the Reduction phono.
Other than tubes, what is mostly subject to fail?
Transformer, resistor, capacitor or ? ? ?
I know that by reputation Bottlehead products are very reliable,
but as per Murphy's law: Anything that can fail, will fail one day
or something like that.

Guy 13

 

[Grainger49]

Resistors will last 50 years, transformers 100 years.  Electrolytic capacitors are good for about 20 years and need to be changed before they leak (I'm not sure new ones leak when old, but old ones do).  If you look in the Legacy folder you will see a sticky about Bottlehead servicing their older products that are due for "re-capping." 

I guess the volume control will wear out first if you run it up and down a lot.  Leaving it in one position will eventually, about 10 years, cause a dead spot.

So, tubes first then volume pot and when you are grey haired the caps.

 

[Guy 13]

Resistors will last 50 years, transformers 100 years.  Electrolytic capacitors are good for about 20 years and need to be changed before they leak (I'm not sure new ones leak when old, but old ones do).  If you look in the Legacy folder you will see a sticky about Bottlehead servicing their older products that are due for "re-capping." 

I guess the volume control will wear out first if you run it up and down a lot.  Leaving it in one position will eventually, about 10 years, cause a dead spot.

So, tubes first then volume pot and when you are grey haired the caps.

Hi Grainger49 and all Bottlehead owners.
Thanks for your answer.
Well, I have to change the capacitors right now,
because I have already lots of grey hair.
I'm soon to be 66.

Guy 13

 

[Grainger49]

Ok, I made bad assumptions at 64.  Happens to us.

So get your son to change the caps when it is due.  Nothing else should wear out before you (and I) do.

 

[Guy 13]

Ok, I made bad assumptions at 64.  Happens to us.

So get your son to change the caps when it is due.  Nothing else should wear out before you (and I) do.

Hi Grainer49
Standard incendescent light bulb are or will be banned in California,
maybe the same thing will happen to the audio tubes in Canada ? ? ? :-\

Guy 13

 

[Grainger49]

Incandescent bulbs are being outlawed everywhere in the US soon.  I buy every time I'm at the store.  I hate the light from the CFL bulbs.

 

[mcandmar]

They wanted to do it here but had to prospone it until 2015 because there was an EU regulation stating "member states must allow the sale any product that is legally for sale in another member state".  (Dutch herbs not included )

All the retailers started doing a purge anyway and stocking those horrid cold CFL bulbs, or worse LED's.  On the plus side it meant regular bulbs were being sold for next to nothing so i started a little stockpile. Manufacturing of them ended in 2012 so they are very hard to find now, NOS light bulbs has become a thing.  But i'm just weird like that, i was one of the few that was dragged kicking and screaming from CRT's to flat panels, and even those went from CFL backlighting to LED.  Blue is the new white apparently.

I just wish they would ban blue LED's, those i find especially offensive.

 

[Guy 13]

Hi all.
Here in Vietnam they still have lots of those 48" fluorescent tube with the small starter that always flicker for several seconds before it stabilize.
That's why I prefer the CFL, however I am still a fan of the good old incendescent light bulb, even if I prefer the daylite light.
I find the LED still way too expensive and not really reliable.

Guy 13

 

[Grainger49]

M.McM,

I like blue LEDs for their effect.  But not for lighting.

I also like blue cold cathode tubes.

 

[JamieMcC]

(Dutch herbs not included)

lol