Mesa/Boogie Vacuum Tube Audio Owner's Manual
Vacuum tube audio
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- Owner's manual (54 pages) ,
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Summary of Contents for Mesa/Boogie Vacuum Tube Audio
- Page 1 Vacuum Tube Audio Owner's Manual 1317 Ross Street Petaluma California 94954...
- Page 2 Allow the tubes to warm up for 15 minutes while you stow away the packing materials. Then make yourself comfortable with your favorite tunes and refreshments and discover what we like to call: "The Spirit of Art in Technology." Cheers. Randall Smith, president and chief designer - Mesa/Boogie...
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Page 3: Table Of Contents
7 - Tube Maintenance & Tube Rolling... 7 - 1 Maintenance Plan... 7 - 2 Tube Rolling... 8 - Evolution of the TIGRIS... 18-19 9 - Mesa/Boogie Professional Heritage... 10 - Customer Service... 11 - Trouble Shooting... 20-21 12 - On Specs Versus Performance... -
Page 4: Precautions
Chapter 1 PRECAUTIONS: Your Mesa Engineering amplifier is a professional instrument. Please treat it with respect and operate it properly. USE COMMON SENSE AND ALWAYS OBSERVE THESE PRECAUTIONS: • Do not expose amplifier to moisture, rain or water, direct sunlight or extremely high temperatures. •... -
Page 5: Overview
Your new Mesa TIGRIS is an audiophile amplifier with a musical heritage. More than just a playback amp, the TIGRIS is a musical instrument in its own right, handbuilt with the same commitment and passion that we bestow upon our entire line of Mesa/Boogie products. -
Page 6: Overview
2 - OVERVIEW: ( Continued, Chassis Illustrations ) WARM TAPE OPERATE 2/3 TRIODE POWER POWER A.C. MAINS ZERO 4 OHM COMMON 8 OHM PURE CLASS A POWER IGRIS MPLIFIER TANDEM STATE IMAGING Tunable Soundstaging FRONT VIEW: TIGRIS AUX 1 A C U U M U B E U D I O AUX 2... -
Page 7: Installation
Chapter 3 INSTALLATION: 3-1 UNPACKING: power cord! Please retain the packing materials for future use and store in a cool, dry place. Should your TIGRIS ever require service at the factory, it is mandatory to ship the amplifier in the original packing materials to prevent in-transit damage. Also, should you change your living quarters, you’ll be glad to have this packing to protect your investment from the hazards of moving. -
Page 8: Hook-Up Options
3-3 SPEAKER BINDING POSTS: ( Continued ) sounds superior - or vice versa. Trust your ears! You will not cause damage to your speakers or the TIGRIS by mismatching. Experiment to obtain the most pleasing results! Spades or steel spring bananas, gold- or rhodium plated, are the preferred cable terminations. -
Page 9: B: Subwoofer
3-4 HOOK-UP OPTIONS: (Continued) Y connector of sorts, because it effectively adds a second pair of outputs to every source component you own. If you want to run two systems from the same source component, you can connect a preamplifier to the Tape Output, which in turn would control a second amplifier. -
Page 10: Hook-Up Options
3-4 HOOK-UP OPTIONS: ( Continued ) Passive vertical bi-amplification does not require an electronic crossover. It simply means having two amplifiers of equal or unequal power drive the high - and low frequency drive units of your loudspeakers separately. This is different from using monoblocks where each one-channel amplifier drives only one speaker, or from horizontal bi-amping, where one 2-channel amplifier per speaker drives the high and low frequency inputs with one channel each. -
Page 11: Detachable Power Cord
3-4 HOOK-UP OPTIONS: ( Continued ) control instead. This avoids running the load resistor of the headphone circuit unnecessarily hot. To mute the speakers in the second- ary room while the main room remains active, either turn off the secondary amplifier or turn the Level Set to zero. We recommend turning off the second amp so that your favorite inter-room level balance stays put by leaving the Level Set at the predetermined setting. -
Page 12: Grounding Switch
3 - 8 GROUND SWITCH: At the very right of the Tube Bay is a mini-toggle switch which you will probably set once and then leave alone. The easiest way to understand the purpose of this switch is to consider the TIGRIS as having two separate reference groups to ground: one external EL84 2/3 PENTODE COUPLED... -
Page 13: Advanced Features
3 - 9 CONGRATULATIONS: (Continued) the amplifier in order to avoid unwanted sudden volume surprises when you are ready to enjoy your music again. You now have successfully installed your new TIGRIS amplifier, enjoy and happy listening! The following chapters include more in-depth coverage of technical issues and explain the advanced features - but if you’re impatient, go ahead and enjoy the music now! Changing the Pentode / Triode switches or the Negative Feedback selector is self-explanatory and will have immediate sonic effects - you should read up on it eventually, but you may postpone it for the moment. -
Page 14: B: Adjustable Negative Feedback
5 - 1 TANDEM STATE IMAGING: ( Continued ) genetic traits into a new hybrid - such as a rose with no thorns but bigger flowers and stronger scent. With Tandem-State Imaging, you can combine varying amounts of Pentode / Triode operation simultaneously, effectively creating a sonic hybrid that marries the harmonic “rightness”... -
Page 15: Power Tube Blend
5 - 1 TANDEM STATE IMAGING: ( Continued ) The feedback settings of the TIGRIS correspond with the following approximate values ( your actual speaker load and the output tab chosen will affect the values slightly ): Stage 1 Stage II Stage III Higher amounts of feedback affect driver control in speakers by increasing the amplifier’s damping factor and reducing speaker motion. -
Page 16: Auto Bias
5 - 3 HEADPHONE OUTPUT: (Continued) what to listen for when you resume listening to your speakers. If you wish to mute your main speakers not to listen to Headphones but while a second pair of speakers is active in a multi-room application via the Preamp Output, we recommend adjusting the multi-room volume with the Level Set attenuator, leaving the Master Volume control at the lowest possible setting. -
Page 17: Class A Operation
5 - 4 AUTO BIAS: ( Continued ) Note that the voltage relationship between the three elements is similar and that the difference between cathode and the grid voltages is the same in both examples: The grid is 50 Volts more negative or less positive in both. Thus as far as the electrons are concerned, the static operating conditions between the two systems are quite similar. -
Page 18: On Triodes, Pentodes & Irishmen
5 - 5 CLASS A OPERATION: ( Continued ) amplification was going on in the opposite half circuit. That’s the Class B part. The trick is to get the large magnitude signal to pass back and forth in a push-pull circuit without major distortion occurring due to cut- off. -
Page 19: On Triodes, Pentodes & Irishmen
ON TRIODES, PENTODES & IRISHMEN: (Continued) Although the term filament and heater are often used interchangeably, there are specific differences: A filament is a directly heated cathode where cathode coating is applied directly to the heating element. Examples are 5U4 twin diode rectifier and 300B triode amplifier tubes. -
Page 20: Triodes
6 - 1 TRIODES: This section is a continuing technical treatise on the workings of Irish Pubs but to make it easier for the layman to understand, it is explained in terms of vacuum tube technology. Enter the original bar - free beer and no doors. Well, it turns out that some control over the flow can be a necessary and useful advantage. -
Page 21: Pentodes
6 - 2 PENTODES: Occasionally though, bar doors - even the louvered type - were found to be too effective, and too many customers turned away. Something further was needed to increase the attraction of the bar and overcome the resistance created by the door. Thus the cocktail waitress was invented. -
Page 22: Tube Rolling
7 - 1 TUBE MAINTENANCE: (Continued) When the time comes to replace tubes, make a note of the color code on your power tubes before you call us with your order. At the bottom of the tubes, you will find a label listing a three letter abbreviation such as GRY, WHT, YEL, GRN...this is our in-house system of separating our computer- tested tubes into different Bias categories. -
Page 23: Evolution Of The Tigris
EVOLUTION OF THE TIGRIS: (Continued) the headphone potential, we initially jerry-rigged a headphone jack to the speaker outputs. This proved impressive enough, so we re- engineered some of the internal earthing arrangements to further quiet the power amp stage which, rather than the preamp stage, would drive the headphones. -
Page 24: Mesa/Boogie Professional Heritage
We support working musicians whose livelihood and creativity is deeply connected to their amplifiers of choice. This is a responsibility we take very seriously. Our road-going Mesa/Boogie gear is built to the very highest standards that reflects the level of abuse that is part and parcel of the Pro Music world. -
Page 25: Trouble Shooting
Chapter 11 -TROUBLE SHOOTING: The most common failure in a tube amp are ... tubes, you guessed right. There are two main types of tube failure: shorts and noise. Both large and small tubes may fall prey to either of these problems, but diagnosis and remedy is usually simple. Let’s begin with noise: Often caused by contamination within a tube, a noisy tube can usually be identified by lightly tapping on the outer glass envelope. -
Page 26: Basic Specs
Chapter 12 - SPECS VERSUS PERFORMANCE: (Continued) When evaluating and choosing components, specs may be used as a starting point to reduce the number of options to a realistic figure, but then it becomes vitally important to remember how these components will be ultimately used: for the joy of music in a home environment, as opposed to on a test bench in an anechoic chamber. -
Page 27: Warranty
Chapter 14 - WARRANTY : 14 - 1 WITHIN THE US: Your Mesa TIGRIS Integrated & Headphone amplifier is covered by a limited 30 days warranty. To extend it to its full three years coverage on parts & labor, you must complete the warranty registration form in Chapter 15 and return it to us by mail within 30 days from date of purchase.In the event your TIGRIS needs service under warranty, we pay for return shipping to you, while you are responsible for shipping charges to us. -
Page 28: Registration Form
Establish a sequence of importance, 1 for most, 8 for least important, using numbers 1-8 once each. sound quality output power Mesa/Boogie MI heritage price / performance ratio What is your favorite setting, with what stage of feedback? Which is your least favorite setting in your system? Tell us about your system (brand. - Page 29 WARRANTY REGISTRATION FORM: ( Continued ) What other products would you like to see from us in the future? How do you rate your dealer in terms of presentation? poor Product knowledge? poor good Anything else about your dealer we should know? How important are specs versus listening to you when you make a purchasing decision? (Use percentages, specs first, like 25/75) Your Name...
- Page 30 OOGIE The Spirit of Art in Technology Thank you for trusting MESA/Boogie to be your amplifier company. We wish you many years of toneful enjoyment from this handbuilt all tube instrument.
- Page 31 The Spirit of Art in Technology 1317 Ross Street Petaluma, CA 94954 (707) 778-6565 Phone (707) 765-1503 Fax...