So tubes can be ridiculously finicky with how the sit within the socket. Slight nudges have made a difference for me. Not hearing a channel makes think that one of your tubes wasn’t fully seated.
Tubes also needs time to warm up. I don’t put anything through my tube amplifier until I feel the tubes are too hot to touch.
@ProfFalkin’s idea of cleaning the pins may also help also. Crackling is a bit odd. I might get some slight static or tinkling but that settles down over time once the amp has been on for a bit. Prolonged burn in may help but you may always have a little noise on start up. Tube amp ownership has its idiosyncrasies.
@PaisleyUnderground - clean the tube pins with Deoxit, and ensure everything is seating properly.
If you have issues with a tube, remove it and replace it. If you have a microphonic one have Zach replace it. You paid a lot for that Pendant. You should get serviceable tubes.
Tubes do go bad, although in my experience, its uncommon for a new tube to be defective. I just tested four 5965A (12AV7) I purchased last night and all of them tested strong. Less than five percent of the tubes I’ve tested have been bad (shorts or low mutual conductance readings).
Thanks everyone for the advice. I turned it on this morning and there was just a black background, absolutely no noise, and I’m listening to music without any problems.
I’m guessing that was my biggest issue, because the 12AU7 was the first one I pressed in and it’s so small that I was terrified of breaking it. By the time I’d replaced all the vintage with the JJ’s, and then re-inserted the vintage, I was an old hand at it.
@ToddR, thanks for the tip about the tube cooler. I love the fact that these tubes glow a lot more than the one in my Lyr3 so I don’t think I’ll cover them up.
It sounds amazing right now, and if it gets better as the tubes settle in some more, I can’t wait.
When I ordered my Pendant, the Burl wood bases were out of stock, so I lived with the plain black one until the Burl was back in stock.
It came today! Here’s some pictures as well as the underside showing the nice neat constuction.
Marcello @MRHifiReviews, that’s a lot of equipment. Did you buy all of that since you joined the forum in December 2019 as a newbie interested in headphones? Only asking because I joined in July, so I’m just wondering if I’m going to keep getting sucked down that rabbit hole over the next few months. I only have 1 DAC and 2 amps right now.
Definitely not @PaisleyUnderground some are review units, others are owned or units I may Purchase. Haha also why I just sold two pairs of headphones and have an amp up for sale!
I am also fully invested into filming and reviewing everything I can (within reason) for my YouTube channel so you will likely see things come and go.
But to answer your question, you may get sucked down the rabbit hole! The question is will you take the red or the blue pill.
My custom right-angled Pendant interconnects came today, courtesy of Douglas Connection. OCC Furutech cables with Cardas right angle connector on the Pendant end and Furutech connector on the DAC end.
The owner, Doug, can add the Cardas right-angled connector to anything to suit your budget, for instance if Mogami is more your thing, that’s what he’ll use. Or alternatively, if Cardas cable is more your thing, PM @ToddR, who has connections (pun intended).
Or you could buy a right angle adapter for your current cables for a lot less money. I wanted something soldered to the wire to provide a tight connection, but there are lots of choices for all of us.
Agreed that that seems a bit high priced. But custom wood and vintage tubes, assuming from ZMF, would put it round 2500ish? You can get a black chassis Pendant with vintage tubes brand new for 2200.
My Verite C’s come in tomorrow,and I’m just waiting to see what the burl on the headphones looks like before I make my decision on the chassis for my Pendant. This will be the first amp I own that is not a DAC/AMP combo and I’m looking for advice on what DAC to pair it with. Source is Tidal via Macbook Pro, I’ve been considering the Bifrost 2 and the D90 MQA, but I’m not entirely sold on either. Any advice would be helpful, price range is pretty wide but I’d prefer not spend over $2k on a standalone DAC unless it would perform significantly better with the set up listed above. Thanks all in advance!
hole! The question is will you take the red 
or the blue pill.
