Mollycoddling tube amps is silly to me. Although I maybe shouldn’t make a guitar amp analogy in this hallowed audiophile ground (I use tubes for hifi also, but firmly believe nothing is sacred), I’ve owned tube guitar amps that were turned on and off frequently for decades...worked perfectly...same tubes for years and years in some cases. You take your hifi tube amp on airplanes? Blast it on high gain in a club then toss it in your trunk? For years? I don’t drag any of my hifi gear around as...well...nobody does except to audio shows maybe...still...and the answer is turn the damn tube amp off. Tubes warm up in seconds...
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.
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@pindac Thank you for your response. But what is Valve red plating ? I never heard of it. |
Ha. Love it! People can get a bit precious about tubes. There was a time, when everything ran off tubes… First thing I turn on when I wake up, is the system. Last thing I turn off, is the system. Listen before I leave for work, listen when I get home. If I leave the house, I turn it off. If I’m going to be working on something around the house for anything over an hour, I turn it off. I listen to radio a lot… I have a couple of systems here that I switch out (tube and SS pre amps, tube and SS power amps.) with different speakers. I tend to treat SS and Tubes the same. Turn on if I’m there, turn off if I’m going away. I have a friend who bought a SE EL34 amp off AliExpress. He never turned it off. It sat in a small area on a shelf, with poor ventilation. One speaker cable had come undone from the banana plug, so left channel was not connected to a speaker. Tubes were original and of very low quality. Nothing bad happened…
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I have not owned high-powered tube amps. None of the amps I’ve owned really required much warm up. I turn them on and start listening immediately. If they seem a bit off, that goes away in a minute or so. If the sound is enjoyable right from the start, even if it is less than optimal, why would you not start listening immediately? If you sessions are short, it is even more imperative to start immediately. |
If high power tube amplifiers are as hazardous as outlined in several post above, then how come they are not banned in the state of California? Worrying about tube seems a little strange. You knowingly purchased and expensive amplifier with a large number of tubes. Do people who buy exotic Italian supercars worry about the cost of an oil change? |
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