Life of KT150 tubes on ARC Amps

veerapaneni OP106 posts01-30-2019 7:32pm

I read they are good for 3000 Hours but at 2400 hours they are not sounding that great and always played at very low volumes.

From ARC Link.

Note: Near the end of the tubes sonic life, aging vacuum tubes may degrade the sonic character of the product(s) they are used in. Make sure to replace your tubes before outright failure occurs.

@ veerapaneni,

A very nice 2ch system indeed......

Cheers,  
Jim

If I ever had doubt about the value of tubes in my little single ended  power amp, I'd simply buy a Pass XA25 and call it a day. 

Definitely replace well before failure. There are many horror stories of the effects of tube failure in ARC amps. One of the best things about the VTLs I own is how well they handle tube flame outs, taking down a fuse only with lots of on board diagnostics to help you problem solve the issue

ive also found that pre amp tubes also need replacing well before rated life, they gradually go off and sound much more wooly, in my ARC phono and pre I found that even at 1500 hours they were markedly worse than a broken in new set

For the price of retubing a big amp directly from ARC, one can buy a used Music Reference RM-200 (100w/ch), which needs it's four output tubes (a pair of KT88 or 6550 per channel) replaced only every 10,000 hours. And like folkfreak's VTL, the MR tubes are fused, so no fireworks ;-) .

I dont own arc, but i know tube life in my amps can vary greatly if i dont keep an eye on the bias.