Nice, Short, Simple, But Interesting One Here!
Coming in for the simple job of a re-valve (outputs) and a bias set-up, this current Orange AD200 bass Mk3 amp head in the end proved to be a little disapointing!
I opted for the new Tung-sol KT88's, which are pretty good. After fitting these and then carrying out the re-bias, I was very surprised to find only 165 watts true RMS. I checked all voltages, drive and everything was within spec and fine. Just for good measure, I tried a quad set of GEC Gold Lion KT88's (I had no intention of letting it go out with these in place!) but, although I was seeing about 8 watts more, this is still below the amp's 200 watt RMS rated output.
Everything else seemed OK, so I can't really understand why this particular amp is not reaching its rated output. It will be interesting to do a comparison if and when another one of these crosses my path. One thing I will say here though is that all the old, original Orange amps that I have dealt with have made their quoted RMS power, and in a lot of cases well beyond!
Interesting stuff. Any comments please let me know........John.
