by Bob Latino Thu Jul 24, 2014 6:01 am
Personally I like seeing the glow of the tubes and don't use a tube cage. If, however, you have young children in the house or curious pets, sometimes a tube cage is a good idea. If the amps have a permanent location and are never moved, you could also just use NO screws and let the tube cage sit on the amp using gravity to hold the covers on. Having no screws holding the amp together is not a good idea though if you forget and try to pick the amp to move it to a new location. You can always CHECK the bias setting without removing the tube cage but you do have to remove the cage to ADJUST the bias. Every now and then I will see an original Dynaco amp for sale on Ebay where the previous owner has drilled through the top of the tube cage to allow the insertion of a long screwdriver to adjust the bias. Yes - this will work but IMHO it does not look good and will probably detract from the value of the amp.
Bob