Vacuum tube
Other failures

Vacuum tubes may develop defects in operation that make an individual tube unsuitable in a given device, although it may perform satisfactorily in another application. Microphonics refers to internal vibrations of tube elements which modulate the tube's signal in an undesirable way; sound or vibration pick-up may affect the signals, or even cause uncontrolled howling if a feedback path (with greater than unity gain) develops between a microphonic tube and, for example, a loudspeaker. Leakage current between AC heaters and the cathode may couple into the circuit, or electrons emitted directly from the ends of the heater may also inject hum into the signal. Leakage current due to internal contamination may also inject noise. Some of these effects make tubes unsuitable for small-signal audio use, although unobjectionable for other purposes. Selecting the best of a batch of nominally identical tubes for critical applications can produce better results.

Tube pins can develop non-conducting or high resistance surface films due to heat or dirt. Pins can be cleaned to restore conductance.
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