Leaving tube amps on.
This is a question I had for a long time. I know it’s not a good idea to leave tube amps on all the time because of tube life and safety reasons. But sometimes I don’t have the opportunity to listen to my system / music for hours at time at one sitting. Sometimes I can only listen to it 45 min - a few hours at a time during the day / night. So my question is would it be better to leave the amps on all day / evening and listen when I can or turn them on / off every time I listen even if is only 45 min at a clip. But to just clarify when I don’t intend to listen that day/ night they will be off. Does turning the amps on / off throughout the day / night do more harm than leaving them on ? Tube life , wear and tear on amps etc. btw I have the Audio Research Ref 750s. Ea amp has 18 KT150 , 6550WE , 6H30.
I love the idea of leaving them on, but I cannot park myself near my amps all day long, and a fire is a terrible thing. This seems like an easy one. |
@ghdprentice Thanks for your response. I have to agree now with you. These 750s do have a slow start. And considering the options of leaving them on or off during some of my short listening sessions during the day / night I will now be turning them off. I have about 800 hrs on these KT150s and I also did buy a brand new complete matched set of tubes from ARC when I bought these amps last summer. Also I did already a tube ARC last year when I first got these amps. One of the KT150 tubes must of gotten shaken up during shipping. I think it was the very first time I played them. Scared the FK outta me. I put a post up last year about that. |
@czarivey Thanks for your response. These are my first tube amps I have ever owned. I went from a Krell FPB 600 to the ARC Ref 750s. My first day of owning them I was listening for about 10 min and had a tube arc from a KT150 tube. It sounded like an explosion with a fire and lots of smoke. Scared the FK outta me. I posted this happening on AG last year. |
