Just a couple of quick notes here, don't mean to overburden the forum.
One - regarding the extended tube life with 24/7 operation... while a common opinion, it is most definitely not universally agreed upon or shared. One could construct many different cases, but in my opinion, in ***general*** in normal home environment turning the equipment ON and OFF will produce longer tube life.
Furthermore, continuous operation will, without any doubts, shorten the life of most electronic components. Whether this is justifiable by potentially shorter readiness times - is up to the individual user to decide.
Regarding the 5AR4 tubes - their quality level is generally quite high, but we certainly went through a less than spectacular batch. As the manufacturer, we do our best trying to shield the customer from such problems, but that is not always possible in timely fashion. For instance, we stopped using the Sovtek 6V6 tubes entirely, at one point. But some problems only manifest themselves weeks or months down the road.
All tubes in BAT equipment operate with very significant deratings. The output 6C33 tubes operate the hardest, at about 60% of maximum stress, other tubes are typically used at far less than 50%.
Victor Khomenko
BAT
One - regarding the extended tube life with 24/7 operation... while a common opinion, it is most definitely not universally agreed upon or shared. One could construct many different cases, but in my opinion, in ***general*** in normal home environment turning the equipment ON and OFF will produce longer tube life.
Furthermore, continuous operation will, without any doubts, shorten the life of most electronic components. Whether this is justifiable by potentially shorter readiness times - is up to the individual user to decide.
Regarding the 5AR4 tubes - their quality level is generally quite high, but we certainly went through a less than spectacular batch. As the manufacturer, we do our best trying to shield the customer from such problems, but that is not always possible in timely fashion. For instance, we stopped using the Sovtek 6V6 tubes entirely, at one point. But some problems only manifest themselves weeks or months down the road.
All tubes in BAT equipment operate with very significant deratings. The output 6C33 tubes operate the hardest, at about 60% of maximum stress, other tubes are typically used at far less than 50%.
Victor Khomenko
BAT