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No reason to use a bulb matched to the full output draw of the amp. We should only be using the lamp at idle anyway. The bulb is there to prevent excess current - fuse blows - it is not there to provide operating conditions.
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Education is what you're left with after you have forgotten what you have learned. -
Right on Enzo. I just keep a hundy in mine and, in the event of a popping fuse, I only use it to glean rough info as guidance with the amp at idle. I don't even use it for initial voltage tests on new builds anymore. Though that one might bite me in the back side some day. I did once use it to sort of slow form old caps in a twenty year old amp that had never been out of the manufacturers box. I just let it sit there on the limiter for about six hours. It seemed to work, sort of. The amp worked fine and never failed during the days testing, but with some minor hum and ghosting. But the first amp we took out of it's box and plugged in just sounded awful and blew it's caps in under five minutes. I replaced the electrolytics is both amps the following day."Take two placebos, works twice as well." Enzo
"Now get off my lawn with your silicooties and boom-chucka speakers and computers masquerading as amplifiers" Justin Thomas
"If you're not interested in opinions and the experience of others, why even start a thread?
You can't just expect consent." HelmholtzComment
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I have a 100w bulb at the moment, plus a 60W and 40W to hand. I mainly use a variac and monitor current draw as I ramp up the voltage, but there are quite a few instances where a limiter is very useful. The big downside of any bulb limiter is that some SS amps don't like them one bit and they can give the impression of a serious fault where there isn't one and latch a power rail to the output. Trace Elliott Quad Chorus and early ILP-brick Sessionettes come to mind.Comment
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It is said of a man, but applies to our tools as well:
Education is what you're left with after you have forgotten what you have learned.Comment
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