Metropoulos Forum

Is that normal? I finally got my 1959 together and I fired it up about 9 PM to test voltages (no tubes)... was reading about 485 V on OPT sockets pin 3. Later, about 1 AM, it was reading between 515 and 519 volts! Is that normal? or at least ok? Is there that big a difference when the neighbors arn't using electricity? I would imagine that will melt my tubes!

I am hoping to throw some tubes in it tomorrow morn and take a first listen.

Thanks.
Eric

Well, you will definitely get higher voltage readings all across the board when there are no tubes in, because there's no load on the transformer.

Put some tubes in if everything looks good and see what it drops to. The Heyboer PT in my '69 Super Bass kit still pumped 490VDC to the power tube plates with all the tubes in.