Tube life in preamp. Please help


Hello-

Using an Audio Research SP9 and I've shut it down each time between listening sessions.

I find however it sounds better if I leave it in the standby position.

How much does this lessen the life of the two tubes it contains? They were Amperex and not cheap.

Please advise. Thanks!
jlj1
I used Telefunken in mine. I found the 6DJ8/ECC88 to sound better in the SP9 MKII , and the 6922/E88CC to sound better in the MKIII. They both lasted more than five years in standby.
don't leave tubes on stand-by if you want to save your equipment and your dwelling. it's dangerous no matter how well tube electronics are designed. if you're not watching your equipment or go to bed you must turn that off.
A note about tube's being damaged by "current in-rush"...I've owned tube guitar (old low wattage stuff, high wattage English and US amps, etc.) amps that kept their preamp tubes for DECADES and were turned on and off thousands of times with and without "stand by" circuits with...here it comes...ZERO preamp tube issues. I doubt hifi amps get the abuse guitar amps suffer in their natural state (do you overdrive your preamp tubes to distortion for several hours while their in the same box as your speakers?...no you do not).
Well, Wolf, i once re-wired point to point VTL tube amp that started burning in front of my eyes, but I'm glad you're always holding premium cards that you don't have to fold.
Czarivey-You are a bit paranoid, aren't you? Not too many amps will "burn in front of your eyes" unless you mess with them...

Standby was created for a reason and generally speaking it works quite well at extending both tube and equipment life. An amp that burns up usually does that as soon as you turn it on, not after being on standby for 4 days or 400 days.

Yes, I do turn off gear when I'm not going to be around for a couple of days but never for shorter periods.
Preamp tubes should last longer in standby by avoiding the current rush. Many NOS 6922's can last 5000 to 10,000 hours.