aesthetix IO owners: How long do your tubes last?

The first time I did some tube rolling in the Aesthetix IO Sig, was when I started to hear a tube or so making some noise. I isolated the culprit or culprits, the V1 and V2 stages. At the time I tried various tubes in all three gain stages. I finanlly settled on some Mullards and then going back to some new Sovtek 12AX7LPS for the V1 stages, they seem to make magic in that position. I believe a full tube replacement from Aesthetix for the IO is about $800, however, if you pick and choose replacement tubes yourself, the prices are considerably lower.

I am not sure why my original Aesthetix IO tubes started making noises, but the replacements have been in a couple of years now, with extensive weekend use, and no problems, just excellant musical reproduction.

One little note, once you do get the correct tubes in, their is a sheen of life in the vocal and musical reproduction. It just makes music sound hauntingly real.

Ciao,
Audioquest4life

There's a thread either here or on the asylum that mentions the user keep the IO on 24/7 for a year. The tubes were down 5 to 15% after that time. That amounts to a long time for the typical user. If I remember correctly, they were NOS tubes, not stock.

Speaking of the stock tubes, I'm not a fan at all. If forced to live with the Sovtek's, I would sell the IO and find something different. Just a different opinion from the two above.

Very helpful responses. Thank-you. I heard of tubes lasting in phono stages for 4-6 months and that freaked me a bit. I had heard phonos were hard on tubes. I guess it must vary quite a lot by design. thank-you all for sharing your experiences.