1st Tube amp question

You would not want to have a source on a tube amp that is not hooked up to any speaker blasting away so that the amp is trying to output high power but has no load on it.  But, if it is just sitting there with nothing playing, it is okay not to have a speaker hooked up to the amp.  

But why?  Don't worry so much about burn in.  Hook it up and enjoy music while it is supposedly burning in.  I think it is crazy wasting a substantial portion of the life a tube to a burn in phase that does not involve listening and enjoying the amp.

speakers connected to protect the amp/transformers

Brent Jesse Instructions: no source needed for tube burn-in, just leave it on for 60 hours.

always have a load on a tube amp.

Why would would you want to waste tube life (a very finite thing) breaking it in. Just sit back and enjoy the music.

Just hook up the system and play music.

You may very well observe changes in the SQ (both bad and good) over the next 200 hours, or so.

I just did this with some oddball gear for a newly put together mini system for our spare bed/computer room.

The SQ has improved considerably over the past 3 weeks.

DeKay

@immatthewj ...support guy from Cary (this was a few years ago when you could actually speak to someone from Cary on the phone about issues) related to a Cary V12...".

It’s a bummer, isn’t it... argh. That helpful person left the Co, I kept in touch after. He was getting a lot of customer calls, with pressure from his boss to stay off the phone to finish up on other design projects. A balance is always needed I guess. As a company, what they misunderstood is customer service is king and employee retention of key employees is critical. And now, to your point. Lesson learned there, one can only hope, in time. Now he talks to whoever he wants designing and building other products. Be respectful to all employees and helpful to your high performers, or they’ll leave.