All vacuum tubes exhibit continuous long term drift when put into service—plate current falls and grid bias shifts. This gradual slide reflects a persistent degradation that begins at initial turn-on and ultimately ends in cathode depletion failure. (Barring other common modes of premature demise, e.g. open filaments, vacuum leaks, gassing, microphonics, atypical distortion, excessive hum/noise.) So vacuum tubes are not a wise choice when stable circuit performance is a serious design goal.
Value of burn/break in?
I have my first hi end audio system. I fired it up, popped in a cd, and it doesn't have the vibrant sound that I thought it might have. I have a slightly used demo power amp from a dealer, slightly used demo speakers from a dealer, but a brand new tube preamp. A friend of mine told me that I will see a huge difference in sound quality once the tube preamp breaks in. I was wondering if I should get a break in cd or just wait till normal listening does the job
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- 34 posts total
- 34 posts total