Butler Audio TDB 5150 manual Tube Reliability

Tube Reliability:

It's interesting to note that until the 1960's, tubes were used in every area of electronics including aviation. When people flew on a commercial airliner, they literally trusted their lives on tube-powered avionics. So, aside from a common-sense warning to take care not to break the glass, there is very little reason to be concerned about the 6SL7GC tubes within your amplifier. Without them, the musicality of your amp would greatly diminish!

Butler's design has reduced the electronic stress on the tubes to less than 5% of rated value and NO dangerously high voltages are needed for operation. Therefore, heat production from the tubes is minimal. BK Butler has been a pioneer in the use of low-voltage vacuum tubes and time has proven him correct in his long assertion that correctly employed, vacuum tubes don't need lethal voltages to be highly musical. (Just ask Eric Johnson - repeatedly voted by Guitar Player Magazine as the world's best guitarist, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, or Pink Floyd's David Gilmour if BK Butler's low voltage tube guitar pedals aren't the most reliable and best sounding ever made!)

What this means to you is that the tubes installed in your new Butler amplifier should last as long as the other high quality electronic components in the design. No special tube care, replacement, matching, biasing or maintenance is usually necessary. In the unlikely event a tube becomes faulty,* each tube is connected to the power module via a high-reliability multi-pin connector so replacement is simplified.

Finally, the most likely reason you invested in your new Butler Audio amplifier was to enjoy the sonic superiority vacuum tubes create. Please enjoy this revolutionary design BK Butler worked so long to produce. We're confident you'll have many trouble-free years of listening pleasure!

- Everyone at Butler Audio, Inc

*The only external visual check possible by the customer is to look through the front panel louvers for the 2 glowing orange/red tips at the top of each tube during operation. The blue illumination should continue, but if a particular channel becomes inoperative and its tube has no glowing filament tips, that tube is likely defective and should be replaced.

9