Is it normal for the frame of a VALVE.vacuum tube stereo Amplifier to get very hot when switched on?

Posted by admin in Thursday, November 12th 2009

Topics: Car Audio

wanttoknowbasis asked:

I am not running anything yet I am trying to check it out .It is very old .
It is so hot you could not hold your fingers to it for longer than a few seconds

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4 Comments

Karle said in November 14th, 2009 at 12:50 pm

sum of the old radios do run extremely hot…. also usualy dust build up on the internals make it even hotter….

idontgivafork said in November 15th, 2009 at 6:02 pm

if it does that its probably real big, real cheap or broken. id suggest using a junk preamp when you hook it up and dont touch the damn thing except with the back of your hand first.also if its for guitar wear rubber soled shoes. i had an experience with a fender and no shoes, i didnt know if id outlive the smoking amp.true.sounds like its either a 100 amp plus and thats = to any 300 watt electronic rigg.

rick29148 said in November 18th, 2009 at 11:18 am

Yep. Tubes have electric heating coils inside; That’s what you see in the dark - The warm glow of tubes, not the cold stare of a transistor. The glass envelope of a vacuum tube will burn your fingers.

mustanger said in November 18th, 2009 at 8:59 pm

The nature of the beast. Vacuum tubes run hot. I got more than one burn from them back in the old days.