Leave tube amps always on?

@avanti1960


That’s the conundrum. The NOS Mullard Tubes, all 8 of them in my 2 amps ( a quad per) are EF2 from the early 1960s, are almost impossible to find outside of LTA and prices are over $200 per tube if you do.  Even LTA acknowledges that unless they find another warehouse in Eastern Asia with 60 year old unopened boxes they will one day soon need to find a replacement tube for their zotl40 reference amp so I may not want to test Mark’s suggestion.

Today I will be watching football with the volume off,and listening to my main system which has a tube preamp. I won’t be leaving the house,so I will keep it powered up even if I go hang with the Mrs. before kick off. 

I dont need any more convincing. Mr. Berning’s ZOTL preamp/amp technology is mind blowing performance, like nothing I’ve ever experienced sonically and I don’t want that burn out faster lol.

Being an owner of ARC tube gear, my response is NO!  My gear is probably 80% of the way there after 20 to 30 minutes after start-up.  After an hour, my gear is all the way there.

I echo what another some of the posters said about tube life.  My amp uses KT-150s, which are expensive power tubes that, per ARC, have a service life of 3000 hours.  Too darn expensive to leave my gear running 24/7. 

I am also concerned about energy costs and even safety.

So, ... NO!!!