Build complete! Some questions...

[Kevin]

Just finished my build! It was very nerve-racking finally powering everything on to check voltages and biasing, but everything checked out!

I did have a few questions...

• I attached a picture below of what I did... The blue arrow is what I was supposed to do: connect the solid orange cable to lead 6 of the impedance switch. However, for some reason, the cable was too short. I saw in the next steps that I was to bridge lead 6 of the impedance switch to lead 5 of the output switch. So what I did was the red arrow: connected the solid orange cable to lead 5 of the output switch. Now, I don't think this would be much of an issue, but I want to confirm with someone who knows more about this than I do. The solid orange cable is not twisted around the striped orange cable. Was what I did ok? Would I potentially hear more noise? Should I pull out the CAT5 cable and redo the segment?
• Turning the amp on with headphones plugged in, I heard some LOUD ringing in the right channel. It subsided, and I could hear the music just fine. Once the ringing died, everything sounds absolutely phenomenal. However, I noticed that any vibrations brought the ringing right back (tapping the top plate, adjusting the volume knobs). If I turned the volume very slowly and softly, the ringing is still there, but barely audible. I figured it might be a tube issue, so I swapped the left and right tubes, and voila. Deafening ringing in the right channel now. Can someone please confirm this? Will this go away with a new tube? Or is there something else I can troubleshoot first?

Thanks!

[Paul Birkeland]

Your relocation of that orange wire isn't going to cause any problems, I would worry about it.

The ringing you hear isn't abnormal for a 6C45PI, you'll find that the noise will change sides if you swap the tubes. 

-PB