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New tubes every year...or every five? ?

I may get thrown off this forum, referred to an ear specialist and sent to Circuit City to replace my system, but it recently occured to me that I did not change the tubes in my recently dumped Jadis JPL pre amp for 5 years! There is no on/off switch on this pre amp but there is a "stand by" switch which was always on. I would say I listened to the system for only an hour or so a week. Since trading my Apogee stages for Martin Logan SL3's about 3 years ago, I rarely listened to the system and found it uninvolving and a little fatiguing and bright. It didn't necessarily sound bad -- I thought I just needed to buy a new D/A or go back to LPs. Is it possible that my very light use and the standby switch would give the tubes such a long lifespan or would a change of tubes have dramatically improved the sound? Maybe I should have kept the system?!? Oh well, more fun to buy new stuff...
cwlondon
gregm
3,409 posts
 
Craig, Detlof's probably hit it the proverbial nail on the SOVhead. The current supply on (my) Jadis was quite stable and ample, hence no extraordinary tube wear. But replacement every 12??? That's expensive -- why not try another tube manuf. and if you feel the top end is soft by comparison -- don't worry: this could be cable or the machine... Just an idea.
tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
Detlof Check out e-bay for tube testers. My audio buddy just bought one from a guy that restores and calibrates them. This past Sunday we went through about a quarter of my stash. What is most amazing to me is how the old tubes fared against the sovteks and newer tubes, all were MUCHO stronger. I have a bunch of amperex and the old Bugle Boy's and some Telefunkens, RCA's and Sylvanias. Only one of the old tubes was shorted. Two of them buried the meter! A few of these tubes were in my McIntosh MC-60's dating back to the mid 50's!! I also found out that the Svetlana 6550 output tubes I installed in my amp a year ago still tested strong with plenty of life. I estimate that they have about 1200 hours based on my use. It is a nice thing to know and you can keep your equipment running optimally. I say at the cost of tubes these days a tester is indispensible. I plan on purchasing one in the near future.
rcprince
3,074 posts
 
Detlof, my tube guru Andy Bouwman has some tube testers he keeps available for sale as well, and the prices were not high. I'll probably pick one up, although I can always send him my tubes for testing, since I buy from him.
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