2. amps-preamps
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Seems like the best "upgrade" for tube amps....

...is to leave the amps on for a few hours before playing. I've noticed recently that when I turn on my Joule amps and let them run for hours, it makes a huge difference in the dynamics and high end sweetness. It gets hot in our house, but it's worth it. Is there a technical reason for this?
dhcod
sebrof's avatar
sebrof
835 posts
 
Worming up is illegal in my state
beewax
173 posts
 
'Is there a technical reason for this?'
Technically, I call them "operating temperature". as all products (human & car included) were engineering, designed and tuned at such degree to its best.
wolf_garcia
6,686 posts
 
If I let tube guitar amps warm up (for 30 minutes?) before using them I would make a lot of people stand around. My experience recently with a quad of kt120s was that running music through them as soon they were ready (30 seconds or so) caused the tubes to last about 7,000 hours, which was more than I expected.
mabonn
181 posts
 
Hi Wolf-Garcia, WOW, 7,000 hours !! What kind of amp are you using them in ?
salectric
747 posts
 
That's good to hear about KT-120s. I have been using my pair for over a year so maybe I have a few more years to go. Mine are run pretty conservatively----500v and 65ma---so that should help.

By the way, I don't see any point in waiting very long before playing music through the amps. I usually let mine warm up a couple minutes (while I am sorting through LPs) but that's it.
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