I am new to this forum and have an old Jolida 202 tubed amp. I have had it for 14 years without a tube change. It has perhaps 1000 hours on the EL34's.

Now my question...the system has begun to develop an intermittent crackling in the right channel. I have reversed the speakers, right to left and the problem moves with the speakers. I have also reversed the right and left on the source cables without any change in the problem channel which tells me it is in the amp. Assuming it is the amp, can failing tubes produce a crackling noise in one channel or is it another problem?

So remind me to try this sucker out when I'm in Japan: Esoteric A-100 triode tube power amp, which should have been just released. It can even be used as an integrated amp, b/c it has a volume attenuator & 3 RCA plus 1 XLR inputs. 45 watts @ 8 ohms, can operate in self-biasing or set. Retail price in Japan is 1,575,000 yen, which is, umm, $14,750. Yet another reason to go to law school! Can Stereophile review this model, please please please?

I don't even know where to begin, so I'm relying on you guys to point me in the right direction. I'm using an NAD c372 integrated amp, and an NAD C 542 CD player.

Thanks in advance.

Clicky Here

Fun!

But a miserable sounding thing. Listen to the MP3.

P.S. This month is the 50th anniversary of LEGO toys.

I posted the following in the General Forum. As a new user i am not sure if that is the porper place so I am also posting here - opinions welcome. Thx in advance:

Hi all - new user. Do any of you have a recommendation or an opinion as to the following: Best preAmp(s) with both fixed and variable outputs.

I presently run an old Luxman preamp into a Mark Levinson 331 (to Avalons) as well as into a whole house dedicated amp (8 separate amps/zones individually controlled, etc).