Do I turn off my tubed components during burn-in?

Hello Meech. Just turning on your preamp is simply a waste of electricity if you want to run in your vacuum tubes. Your preamp uses small signal tubes that traditionally have a life expectancy of 3000-4000 hours[that is years of listening time]. If you want to run in the tubes ahead of time,you must have a modulated frequency present at the tube.Hook up a cd player and play a cd in "repeat mode" through the preamp.Traditionally,new tubes "settle in" and open up after around 20 hours or so. Not just vacuum tubes,most vacuum tube circuits will need some rum in time and usually sound much better after 100 or more hours on the transformers,capacitors etc.I believe your preamp uses the 12at7 for gain and will probably be supplied with chineese tubes[ mediocre at best]You may want to search out a NOS pair of Mullards,Amperex or Telefunken's to replace them with. All the best with your system. PS. I haven't turned my preamp off in 18 years!

To Ecclectic genius: WHICH (there is couple of dozen on your list) pre-amp you DIDN't turn off? All of them? Are they still on?

One hour for warm-up is fine for the tubes themselves, but I've had some components that most certainly do sound better when left on all the time. The Pass Labs Aleph 5 amplifier I owned got better sounding after one or two days of warm-up, but I'm relying on my aural memory to make that judgement. Seems like the Class A stuff does better when it is left on longer, and I'm guessing it has more to do with the SS components, and the non-glass parts of tube gear. Someone tell me if I'm nuts here, or is there something to that. Yep those small signal tubes last about a year if left on all the time, but that will also depend on what pre-amp, which tubes, and how hard you drive your system when you do play it. My buddy tells me his Audible Illusions consumes 6922's pretty quick and the good ones are rather pricey, especially for a matched quad. Also, if you have a class A preamp with a larger transformer your electric bill will certainly reflect your decision to leave the pre on 24/7. I'm not familiar with the Dared. Definitely get rid of those Chinese tubes and get something better. Along with the list above, add to that GEC 12AT7's which are among the very finest out there but harder to find (this is definitely a shameless plug for the fact that I have a minty pair for sale right currently on A'gon). Seriously those are a great choice in that tube type as well. The others were also good reccomendations.

Marco

Kursula.... Thank you for your kind words!You are the first person to ever call me a genius. Obviously, mathematics wasn't one of your stronger subjects.A couple of dozen preamps? Would that be 24?, where did you hear that!I have owned 10 or so "personal" preamps over a 35 year period. I have worked in the recording industry as well as the professional sound business for many years.Also ran a DJ company with 10 systems out in the feild and used a boatload of preamps,solid state as well as vacuum tubed equipment.Have serviced sound equipment for 35 years.Still use and maintain a vacuum tubed Studer pro tape recorder.To answer your pointed and rather dubious questions: I have 5 vacuum tubed preamps currently in use.The much modified Dyna pas 2[12ax7's] that I built from a kit back in 1967 which is still being used in my office and is very rarely turned off.My ARC-sp-10 mk2 in my home system gets powered up only when in use, as it is rather hard on tubes[ecc88's].As Jax2 correctly pointed out,some of the current preamp's on the market can eat tubes rather quickly ,most of them employ the 6dj8/ecc88 family of tubes. The supratek and MFA preamps in my studio are powered up at 8 o'clock every morning and turned off only when I leave. The home built preamp [tubed rectified 6sn7's]in my kitchen is on about 16 hours a day.. every day. The gentleman[meech] is new to tube equipment and asked a specific question. The point I was trying to make... was to run in a "new" preamp with new tubes.I am not suggesting every one here leave their equipment on. ALL preamps,solid state or vacuum tubed will sound far better an hour after they are powered up as Jax2 alluded to ... particulary vacuum tubed preamps.Most preamps designed around the 12a?7 family of triode tubes are generally, very conservative on tubes.The Dared preamp[12at7] falls into that category.However...The transformer, as well as coupling caps in any brand new equipment need to be run in with a modulated signal and will not come into their own for many hours. While my supratek syrah sounded very good right out of the box,It improved daily and did't reach its full potential for more than 200 hours of use with a modulated signal running it. Running a cd player[on repeat] through a new preamp is a great a way to run it in.You don't even have to turn on your amplifier or listen to it for that matter. Kursula...If you choose to wait an hour or so to get the best from your rig, that is certainly your perogative! Some of us here would choose not to do so. PS: Just curious Kursula, Do you actually have a vacuum tubed preamp?

...mathematics wasn't one of your stronger subjects...Still isn't but counting your gear wasn't exactly my priority at the time. I do own tubed pre amp, and nice one too. However you guesed corectly at least one thing: I do not turn it own anymore. But it sure take a genius that chooses to "murder" his time to answer this dubious question! Cheers!