Ouch man! Are you close to gig harbor audio? I think they do repairs up there.
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I am fairly close, yes. I contacted them today actually and might be taking it to them if I canāt find someone closer.
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That should be a pretty easy repairā¦ hope it works out for you!
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The only way that could have happened is if the choke flexed away from the PCB. I opened mine up and those brackets are solidly attached.
If the amp was dropped/jolted hard enough to cause that much displacement Iād take a hard look at the board and the other chokes/transformers to make sure there isnāt additional damage. Maybe also check the screws for that particular choke to see if theyāve backed out somehow. That must have been one heckova voyage!
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With that hard of an impact Iād be concerned about unseen cracks in the board too. In my experience with old-school tank-sized desktop PCs, there can be all sorts of cascade effects. It may work for a while (hours, days, months) after repair, but then die a premature death.
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Yes it was a hard fall. I thought I had it packaged pretty well. Sent it USPS priority and it was insured so I probably should check into that - no point in getting it fixed if thereās hidden damage.
This was how one of the tubes arrived:
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Welp, so much for the āmatched pairā 
Unless you have a good electronics repair place nearby Iād suggest sending it back to Jim and letting him look it over.
And FWIW Iām 100% aligned with @generic. No telling what might crop up in the future. Frankly Iām surprised there isnāt more obvious physical damage.
Sorry about your situation, thatās a real bummer!
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Thanks for the advice everyone. Iām just going to write it off as lesson learned rather than spend more on it only to have other problems crop up. I āonlyāpaid $550 for it.
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My condolences. That bites.
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If i smash the other one I can still sell them as a matched pair, right.
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Just make sure you smash it in the same way. Youāll get a negative review if someone buys them from you and finds they donāt look they same when they take them out of the box! 
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If you had insurance it might at least be worth a first contact with USPS to find out how much of a hassle it would be to collect the insurance.
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PM meā¦
I can repair the transformer leads?
I also have EL84 tubes here
or send it back to Jimā¦
Alex
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Is it fair to say the Tuba is pretty nuetral sounding? Was going to pickup one, seems like having a slightly more neutral headphone for the ZMF Aeolus would be a good pairing.
I would say yes the Tuba is pretty neutral. Uncolored. More like a good SS amo IMO.
Not really tubey at all for meā¦
Typical clean sound from a well designed parafeed type of non-OTL amp.
A.
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I agree that the Tuba is pretty neutral and a good match with ZMFs. I especially like it with the Verite Open, as it seems to bring the slightly recessed mids forward, at least compared to the Pro iCAN Iām used to (with GE 5 star 5670s). Also a little more airy with no loss of details and somehow seems a bit louder and exciting even though volume-matched, though that may just be the more forward mids. Working on finding some tubes which provide a bit more bass. There seem to be a lot of options for matched pairs of new tubes under $50.
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I just took delivery of my new Tuba and see that Jim included two rubber washer-like rings in the packet containing the tubes.
Forgive my complete ignorance - this is my first tube amp - but do these rings go at the base of the tube when inserting into the amp? Or are these what Iāve researched as ādampening ringsā that go on the tubes to prevent vibration? If the latter, do you recommend I use them unless I get notable vibration?
Any guidance would be appreciated!
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One more newbie question - it is unusual, and does it matter, if one of the two tubes seems brighter at the filament than the other? Both are on - both are lit - but one is brighter.
The amp is working perfectly - beautiful quality - but for my first tube amp I donāt know what normal is in terms of the tubes.
Thanks!
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Itās normal.
20 characters.
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